Jackie's Second Acorn...

So much has been happening I haven't even been able to keep up with it! And tomorrow we're scheduled to have something like 26 inches of snow (16 during the day and another 8 - 10 inches tomorrow night). Knitting has been happening, some out of necessity....

I finally wrote up the pattern for Jackie's Acorn - the winter dog-walking hat that I made for myself with Noro Silk Garden that my friend sent me from Seattle:


And no sooner had I done that, when I lost the hat! I think that it was in my lap when I slid out of the car last Saturday in front of the lower door to Macy's at the big Mall, because that's the last time I remember having it. When I went to use it that night, it was no where to be found. But, sadly, no one at the Mall customer service had seen it and one of the wonderful people from the Manchester Knitting Group even drove by the parking lot to try to find it...

So, I had to knit another this week; Jackie's Acorn Two:



Of course I like the first one best, especially since the yarn was a gift from a really good friend, but its great to have a hat again after a week of cold ears! The skein of Noro that I got for this was unfortunately flawed - it was knotted right in the middle of the skein with no regard to the colour sequence. So instead of the light brown to mid brown to deep chocolate brown, I got one 3-row stripe of mid brown and then right back to the grey again. You do take your chances with Noro!

The Socks That Rock KAL for Leyburns (on Ravelry) is still going strong (I think we have 200 people in this knit-along) and I've finally finished mine! (well, they're actually for a gift)



This yarn is BMFA Socks That Rock in Petroglyphs, lightweight, on a 2.5 mm needle. I knit them toe-up, with a gusset heel (no wraps) and used a shell picot bind off that I made up on the spot because I couldn't remember how to do the one I was thinking of at first. It turned out to be a nice stretchy edge...

Here's a good look at the colour and the heel:



Now I am finishing up the foot on a pair of fancy long 16th century stockings for Plimoth Plantation. If I end up staying home tomorrow because of the snow, those will be finished too!

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!