Saturday Sky and Acorn Socks

The sky is schizo today.

The sky to the east, north, south, and directly above is dark and looks like it's going to rain.

The National Weather Service calls for partly cloudy with a high near 79 and no rain.


Over in the west there is a spot of blue sky and white clouds peeking over the treetops.

Most of our weather comes from the west. We get Chicago weather after it has traveled over Lake Michigan which sometimes makes it weaker, sometimes makes it stronger, and most of the time doesn't change it at all. (That's my impression, not scientific weather fact.)


Pattern: #324 from The New Knitting Stitch Library by Lesley Stanfield. I call it Acorn Lace.

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon

Color: Vintage Opal #176

Needles: Addi Turbo #1

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

This yarn has been sitting in my stash a few years. It came as part of a yarn club kit which obviously I never knit up. This sock is not the pattern in the kit.

The stitch pattern is unnamed in the book. It looks like acorns to me. I've been wanting to knit it down the sides of a pair of brownish socks for several years now.

Although I like the earth tones, there is just a little too much black in this blend for me to think it's gorgeous.

In the kit the yarn is described as "vintage Opal that has been hiding in the warehouse since the first shipment of Opal yarn years ago." It looked like oak colors in the skein. It doesn't look like oak colors when knit. And the feel of the yarn itself is a far cry from the plump, soft Opal distributed now.

I will now humble myself by admitting to a dumb mistake in thinking - or I guess it's more accurate to call it NOT thinking. The acorn pattern in the book is right side up. Since these are cuff down socks the acorns are upside down.

As a result of all this, I'm knitting a pair of upside down acorn socks out of rather stiff feeling yarn with too much black in the blend. While they're acceptable, and even attractive in their own non-acorn way, they are nothing like I expected when I cast on.

The yarn isn't worth frogging to use for something else and the socks are fitting well, so I'm going to finish them and be done with it. Hopefully the yarn will soften up when washed.