Knitted Acorn

I love oak trees. I love acorns and I love knitting, so the idea of knitting an acorn appealed. I wanted to knit some for our seasons table. A way to celebrate the season through my own creativity. I looked at a few knitting patterns and adapted them.  Each time I knitted an acorn, I made it slightly different. They were so quick to knit. After five, I hit on the perfect acorn. So I stopped.

I used moss stitch to knit the cap of the fifth acorn (above) and that seemed to work. Mission accomplished, or so I thought.

I thought it would be fun to photograph them as part of an autumn setting, but it just didn’t work. I took too many photos, in various settings. None of them worked.

After a while it struck me that my acorns would never look right sitting next to anything that Mother Nature provided. I think it is the contrast between the dull, knitted texture compared to the beautiful colours and precision of the flowers and pumpkins. My knitting efforts seem clumsy. Nature completely outshines my effort to emulate it.

See, its much better when I focus on the flower. These acorns are great for playing with and that is their purpose now. The children are pleased. Very pleased. They were fun to knit, but they are heading for the play kitchen and not the seasons table. We have a good collection of real acorns on the seasons table.

Maybe I should just stick to looking at the flowers in future.

14 comments

  1. I love your knitted acorns, they are really cute. I think your photos are lovely too and although we can’t replicate nature, we can enjoy creating the things that are in nature. You obviously took great pleasure in making the acorns and that’s what matters the most. Your creativity and enjoyment. Thanks for sharing.
    Have a lovely weekend.
    Anne xx

    1. Oh Anne. You are so kind. You’re right, I did enjoy making them and the challenge of making the best acorn that I could. I’m glad that my children are enjoying them now. They are knitted toys after all!

  2. Oh these are so cute! They made me smile just to look at them. It almost makes me want to take up knitting.:) I love the pic with the acorns on the sticks with the pumpkins.

  3. Very cute acorns, Cheryl. I actually like the picture with the pumpkins very much. The fact that they have slightly different shapes give them a lot of character and perfection is overrated anyway!
    Luciana

    1. Thanks Luciana. You made me smile. You’re right about perfection and I am probably being too hard on these little creations. Looking at the photos, this side of the weekend, the acorns don’t look as bad. What do they say about beauty being in the eye of the beholder! Maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind to appreciate them.

  4. these are adorable! I found you from jodi and I must say those are the cutest little nuts. I can only knit scarves. I can’t pearl. I think I may be screwed.

    1. I’m glad you like them, JoAnn. Apart from the last one, they are only knitted using knit and no purl, so you would be OK to make them. So long as you had no problem with using double point needles.

  5. You know Cheryl You’re complimenting nature rather than in competition…it’s ‘inspired by’ rather than ‘imitation’ I think these would be great as decoration on a hat, scarf and mitten set… you could either sew them on or attach them to i cord as ties ?

    I could also see them as a scarf fringe they’re lovely …:0)

    you’re really clever !!!

    1. Those are lovely ideas. The scarf fringe sounds an amazing idea. It might be too late to extract them from the children. Maybe I should make some more. As for competing with nature, I don’t think I stand a chance! Emulate was probably a poor choice of word. Nature is certainly inspiring, so I’ll settle for that. Love the scarf idea.

  6. bonjour alors moi qui cherche depuis un bout de temps un modele en francais seriez vous d accord pour partager votre savoir faire ils sont si beau vos glands a vous lire et merci de me comprendre j ai 78 ans et seule et en plus le confinement je tricote MERCI

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