October is Orange

This gorgeous knitted  bobble hat is made in The Mercerie’s cinnamon coloured British aran wool and is available as a downloadable pattern, or knitting kit, in our on-line shop. I adore the colour orange; the colour of autumn – pumpkins, golden leaves, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, the last tomato in the green house –  and the last rose of summer.

The colour of apricots, mangoes and sweet potatoes;  urban  foxes, ginger toms, red squirrels and  toffee apples. Orange is a flame haired pre-Raphaelite muse and the brilliant coloured varnish of a seventeenth century Stradivari violin.

Orange in nature is carotene, orpiment, toxic realgar, madder, saffron, turmeric and paprika. It’s lead chromate, cadmium and ochre; found in powder and liquid form in glass jars and soft metal tubes. Worn by an intoxicated Bacchus orange is the colour of frivolity and excess. In Christianity it’s the colour of gluttony. In Confusionism it’s the colour of transformation. Symbolic in Hinduism and Buddism; orange is a spiritual signifier. Orange is an attention seeking extrovert. It’s high vis, get ready to go; it’s a life jacket and a life buoy.

Agent orange defoliated forests and contaminated people and orange is the conspicuous colour worn by ‘non-compliant’ Guantanamo detainees. Orange is a political statement. It’s the colour of an 80 year European war and a bonfire for burning dead wood.

Orange is a flaming revolution and the colour of inspiration.

October is orange.

We included the pattern for this bobble hat in Issue 9 of The Mercerie Post – Have you registered yet?

This blog post is a link in a circle of blogs called Sisterhood Stories. You can read the next link by Elena T. here: