How to Knit a Tiny Patriotic Gnome while also Making Potato Salad

This is a pattern for a little Uncle Sam hat—gnome pattern sold separately!

Step 1
Buy the ingredients for Martha Stewart’s All-American Potato Salad.

Step 2
Knit a tiny bald gnome. (When you switch to the face color in the tiny gnome pattern, decrease by 8 stitches as instructed, then knit 6 more rounds. Then stuff and [k2tog] 8 times to finish off.)

This guy is made with worsted-weight yarn and size 5 DPNs for a slightly bigger tiny gnome.

Step 3
Boil the potatoes

Step 4
While the potatoes are boiling, follow this pattern to make your gnome a tiny Uncle Sam hat:

With white, cast on 4 stitches onto one DPN.
Rnd 1 (work as I-cord): [Kfb] 4 times (8 sts).
Distribute the stitches onto 3 DPNs.
Rnd 2: [Kfb, k1] 4 times (12 sts).
Rnds 3-6: Purl (4 rnds).
Switch to blue.
Rnds 7 and 8: Purl.
Bind off the stitches, and turn the piece inside-out, so that the purl stitches are on the inside.

Work brim
With white, pick up and knit 12 stitches along the bound-off edge.
Rnd 1: [Kfb] 12 times (24 sts).
Bind off loosely.
Weave in the loose ends.

With red, embroider vertical stripes on the white area at 2-stitch intervals.
With white, embroider dots along the middle of the blue area at 1-1/2-stitch intervals.

Stuff the hat lightly and stitch to your bald gnome’s head.

You can also stitch this hat to any other tiny mochis to make them instant patriots!

Step 5
Talk your patriotic gnome into helping you finish making the potato salad according to the recipe, because it’s the patriotic thing to do this weekend. (If necessary, promise him that he can lick the bowl when you’re done.)

Step 6
Have a Happy 4th! And don’t forget to enter your own mods of Mochimochi Land patterns in the Mochi Mod Contest by July 5th!