Instead of gifting boring gift cards on their own…I made a delivery guy to make the gift a little more interesting!
Vladimir has a standard Viking outfit and a Santa outfit.

Hands/Arms
Using 3.5mm hook and 8ply acrylic yarns,
Chosen skin colour to end.

Legs/Body/Head
Boot colour to Rnd 12, then trouser colour up to Rnd 23, chosen skin colour to end.
Boot Cuffs
Make 2
I made a flat braid long enough to fit around the leg at the top of the boot. Stitch in place.

Gnome nose
Work in continuous rounds,
6sc in a magic ring,
Rnd 1: (inc, 2sc) x 2 (8)
Rnd 2: (inc, 3sc) x 2 (10)
Rnd 3: (inc, 4sc) x 2 (12)
Rnd 4: 2sc, inc, 3sc, inc, 2sc, inc, 1sc, inc (16)
Rnds 5 & 6: sc around (16)
Rnd 7: dec around, finish off.
Stuff and sew to face.

Majestic Beard
I cut lengths of yarn and used a latch hook to attach pieces directly to the face - start close to the nose working out to each side and below the nose.
Above the standard length beard area, I added a few slightly longer pieces, braided them and tied off the ends with embroidery thread.

I didn’t bother to add eyes.

Vest
I used a chunky yarn and an 8mm hook.
I made a foundation double crochet long enough to fit around his middle.
Dc enough rows to reach his underarms.
To make armholes…dc in the first 4sts, ch2, skip 2dc and continue to dc til 6dc remain, ch2, skip 2dc, dc to end of row.
I finished off the neck row by working in sc and decreasing across to bring the vest in to the neck size.

I made one brown vest and one white one for his Santa outfit. (I wanted the Santa vest to be red…the yarn wasn’t available !)

Viking Helmet
Using 3.5mm hook and charcoal blend 8ply acrylic yarn,
Make a basic beanie worked from the top down.
When the beanie is long enough to be just above the nose…I added in a puff stitch equally spaced around the hat -doesn’t need to be perfect.
Work another round of sc after the puffy St round, finish with a round of reverse single crochet.
I surface -crocheted a round of reverse single crochet above the puff st rounds to give the impression of a band around the base of the helmet.
For the strapping over top of the helmet…I made strips of dc, again adding puff sts here and there, stitch in place.

Viking helmet horns
(Make 2);
6mm hook and chunky white yarn
Chain 10, sl st to join, ch1, sc around.
•Work another round of sc.
•Sc 3 ch 5, skip 5sc and sc in remaining 2sts.
•3sc, 5sc in unworked skip sts, 2sc.
•(3sc, sc2tog) x 2.
•4sc, 2ch, skip 2sc, 2sc.
•4sc, 2sc in unworked skip sts, 2sc.
•sc2tog, 2sc, sc2tog, 2sc.
•1sc, sc2tog, 1sc, sc2tog.
Finish off - gather top of horn to a point.
Use yarn tail to close the point of the horn, run yarn down to the base of the horn and (stuff) use to stitch horn to beanie.

The pieces at the base of the horns, I worked a round of foundation dc to fit around the base of the horn, finish the upper edge with a round of rev sc. Stitch in place.

I stitched a little hessian bag for Vlad to hold the gift cards.