Jackie's Acorn Hat

My plan for March was to post only about crochet, but my new winter hat is finished and I'm excited to show it. "Winter hat? you ask, "Isn't it spring in March?" Oh, ha ha ha.

Here is some weather - yes! another snow storm! - from out my door yesterday...



So you know I need a new winter hat! I lost my last one, my Top-Down Silk Garden hat in a snow storm (it probably got buried under a snowbank while I was shoveling) and a good friend in Seattle mailed me another skein of Noro SG to try again...



I call it Jackie's Acorn, because of the design and use. Its for walking Jackie the Corgie and his brother, Teddy, and because of this, I wanted it to come down over my ears....



I used short-row shaping to make the sides and back just a bit longer than the front. The crown has an upside-down acorn shape so it will stay on over my long hair that I coil into a bun up inside. There is a falling leaf lace pattern, and a bit of colour added with some left-over bits of sock yarn from my Regia candy-apple stockings.

The Jackie's Acorn Hat pattern is available now.

Finishing my hat was exciting, but yesterday was double-exciting because I finally went to Webs in Northampton, Mass! Today is my birthday and I was treated to a stash-enhancing trip. All I can say is that the real-life shop is 10,000 times better than the website and that if you can get a chance to go there, do. On second thought, don't, because I want all the yarns for myself! I concentrated on picking up yarns that I can't find around here or that are expensive to buy from online vendors. Webs gives you 25% off full-priced yarns if you buy a certain amount, and their full-price prices are lower than online prices to begin with.



Here you see a cone of lace-weight silk from an odd-lots bin (it was less than $10) and a cone of lace-weight merino-tencel. Hand-dyed misti alpaca lace-weight, Shibui sock yarns, Fiesta Baby Boom sock yarn, two pure silk skeins, and two types of hand-dyed silk and wool. I also picked up some Eucalan in the new 'grapefruit' scent. What you can't see here (because she reads my blog) are the birthday gifts I added to my basket for my knitting friend!

The Webs warehouse out back is another world, with bins and bags of well-known yarns at 1/3 the usual price or less...



I got enough yarn for four sweaters: Lavold chunky alpaca for the Drops swing Cardigan, Laines du Nord Green Cashmere and Silk (20 balls) for a spring sweater for me, Some Debbie Bliss aran tweed (the butter yellow yarn) and a bag of Debbie Bliss Cotton & Silk for a little cardigan from her Pure Silk book.

and, finally, the patterns:



The top books are new spring designs from Debbie Bliss, Rowan, and Dale of Norway. The single patterns: A little doll for charity knitting and the Valley Jacket from Webs designers (the girl who rang my items up was the designer of the jacket), the one-skein wonder from Glampyre (I know - I'm years behind on making this), and *finally* a Cookie A sock pattern - Thelonius, and lastly, a St. Seraphina shawl, the Pemberley - not a challenging pattern, but I couldn't resist the name!

So there are the spoils from my very aquisitive yarn trip yesterday... today I am off on a search for vintage pattern books. I guess self indulgance is the theme this weekend!