little acorn

In the midst of birthday celebrations (the mister’s) and a weekend away with five adults, eight children and four dogs, I cranked out this.



And pardon my lack of humility, but I’m rather proud of it.

I was meandering through another one of these in green, and searching through the stash for a dark green wool for the leaves, to thus create a zucchini, when I happened upon a sort of tan coloured yarn.



As chance would have it, I had a bowl of acorns at hand (as you do) and it struck me that it would be fun to make an acorn hat. I had very little of the tan wool, but found a half ball of beige and tried working with both balls at once, using a moss stitch to get the appropriate bumpy effect.

The hat is not without its mistakes as I learnt as I went along, and neglected to rip back and correct things. If you try this, make your decreases a purl two together rather than sl1k1psso, for a nice bumpy stitch that blends in. I fudged the decreases, and didn’t count or make them regular, as I wanted the decreases to be unobtrusive.



Because we were away, I didn’t have access to the internet which was a Good Thing because I wasn’t tempted to go looking for a pattern and find this which I vaguely remember seeing months ago; a fact my subconscious only let me acknowledge after my own version was complete. So I had to make it up as I went along, something I’ve not done before (the vegetable hat is really just a variation on the umbilical hat, as I’ve said before), and as a result this little project really feels like my own invention.



I am normally a pattern follower so this whole exercise was a huge learning curve for me, and I am ridiculously pleased with myself.

While Googling the 6.5st link for this post, the trail led to Cari’s pattern and I discovered the top of that hat appears to be a basketweave stitch, whereas mine is a moss. Also I didn’t do ear flaps.

So. Quite different. Phew, I’d hate my subconscious to be accused of plagiarism.

More acorn joyousness found on my Googling adventure here, ohmygodlook here, here, here, a pattern for a fifteenth century acorn cap here and of course the Queen of Links here and that lot should keep you busy.

Oakie Doke. Now to find a baby who will wear my little prototype and not look too closely at the mistakes.