I like the idea of the whole gnome being completely knitted, there is nothing worse than getting to the end of a pattern for it to say attach fur for the beard!, when you haven’t actually got any.
So here are a few ideas that can be made using yarn you already have.
Knitted Curly Beard
The first beard is just a simple cast on and cast off to make a strip. The strip curls automatically or you can help it along by doing a small gather with the long tail. I did 3 strips for a beard, the first one with 30 stitches, second one with 20 stitches and the third one with 10 stitches. So, cast on the amount of stitches then cast off straight away knitwise. I used white dk yarn and 3.5mm needles.
Arrange the three strips together and join at the top, attach to gnome just under the nose.
Loopy Knitted Beard
This beard is just a small patch of loopy knitting. This is a bit more challenging for those of you who have not attempted loop stitch knitting before, please google loopy knitting as there are many tutorials on this. Have a little practice but you will only need a small patch of this maybe 10 stitches or so. Fold or roll round to fit before stitching on. I used white dk yarn and 3.5mm needles.
Pom Pom/ Gathered Strands Beard
You could make a small pom in white or your contrast colour. Make a rustic pom pom shape by wrapping yarn around your fingers as shown in the images above. The rusticness of this makes it ideal, you can cut a slight point on it to make more of a beard shape.
I have also seen people use a fork to make small pom poms which works well for the pom pom on the hat, (shown in the image below).
Other ideas are obviously craft fur or if you can crochet you could crochet a curly cue.
Hope these help.