Christmas Gonk Craft

Christmas gonks have become extremely trendy. In Scandinavia, gonks are great to have around as they protect your home. You have to be nice to them and they will be nice to you. Children leave out porridge for them so that they can join in the festivities too.

If you’d like to make a Christmas Gonk, you will need:
– A Toilet Roll
– Wool
– Cotton Wool
– Pom Pom or Bead
– PVA Glue
– Scissors

First, choose what colour you would like your gonk’s hat to be. You then need approximately 40 strands of wool about 25 cm long. I did this by wrapping the wool round a notepad twenty times and then cutting the wool at the top and bottom of the loop so I was left with a pile of wool like this one.

Next take your toilet roll and cut off a section about 1cm tall. You don’t need to be super precise.

Now take one piece of wool and fold it in half and pass the loop through the toilet roll hoop.

Pull the two ends of the wool through the loop and knot it around the toilet roll.

Keep knotting the wool around the toilet roll hoop until all the cardboard is covered. Make sure that the wool is all pointing in the same direction. If you have one going the wrong way, just loosen the knot and give it a wiggle until it points the same way all the other wool is going.

Next, take the wool and push it up through the middle of the hoop. As the wool goes up through the middle, the knots will also move inside giving your hat a flat bottom. If you have any knots which don’t go inside, just gently nudge them round with your fingers.

Take your ball of cotton wool and push it inside the hoop. You want the cotton wool to sit just above the hoop inside the wool as this forms the roundness of the hat. Then use a piece of wool to tie all the ends of the wool together just above the cotton wool. This will give your hat the perfect shape and also form a pompom on the top of your hat. You may wish to trim the ends of your wool to make the pompom neat and tidy.

With the hat complete, you now need to move onto the beard. You need about 50 strands of wool which are about 15cm long.

Tie the pile of wool together in the middle

Finally, the gonk just needs putting together. Put a circle of PVA glue inside the gonk’s hat. Fold the pile of ‘beard wool’ in half and place it inside the hat to form the beard. Then, stick either a bead or a pompom just under the hat to form the nose.
You could always add a loop to your gonk’s hat so you can hang your gonk on the Christmas tree.

If you make a gonk, I’d love to see your creations.  Do tag me in your photographs on social media.
I can be found on Instagram – @TiredButCraftyMummy and on Twitter – @TiredButCrafty1  

Other Christmas Crafts you may enjoy:
– Santa Hat Bunting
– Snowman Decoration
– Camel Craft
– Reusable Party Popper Craft