I have certain…proclivities. Put me outside (preferably somewhere shady and not too hot please) and leave me alone for a little while and it’s all but certain I’ll pick up a feather, a pebble, a pinecone, a seashell, a bit of moss, or a nifty stick, depending on where you’ve dropped me off. It’s a character flaw I’m sure, but as far as character flaws go, it’s fairly manageable.

And well, there is a massive oak tree in my yard. And I’ve rather bonded with this tree. I see it out my office window all day long, and I love it dearly. Every year it drops absolute masses of double acorns. One fall, as I was spending some time with the tree, I noticed one tiny, gleaming acorn hanging out in a little pocket of moss nestled in the space between two tree roots.

It was unspeakably perfect, the sort of thing you see on a postcard and think it’s just a bit too charming to ever be real. So naturally I started wondering what it would look like with a knitted acorn. And then, well, you know what happens when I get an idea like that.

The pattern is called Hoard, and it’s one of the six patterns that will be returning next month.⁠

I’m spending some time over the next few weeks introducing the returning patterns and using them to talk about some of the stuff that comes up as folks use my patterns (am I doing this in large part to create a help section on the new website? Yes, yes I am. Do I feel guilty about shamelessly using the stuff I write in multiple places? No, no I very much do not). ⁠

I used the hearts to talk about filling tiny projects. I used the stars to talk about blocking tiny projects. And I want to use these to talk about needles. Because there a couple of questions that come up about needles all the time, and I’ve got some things to say.

Just like last time, I’m putting together a big post on that which will be up shortly. In the meantime, if you have questions about needles, leave them over on instagram (I have comments turned off on the blog) and I’ll try and answer most of them in the upcoming post.⁠

And if you happen to have knit these, post a picture on instagram and tag it with #tinynonsense. I’d love to see what you’ve done with them!⁠