fall orange

On a recent visit, my mother-in-law brought a hat she had knitted for the kids, and oh the vying that has ensued. Aside from the obvious draw of a pumpkin hat, and the supersoft that is good wool, I really think it's the color that has prompted half of the kids to claim ownership.

I mean, it is fall. Orange and fall; is there a more perfect combination?

Sunday afternoon we went for a walk in the canyon. The greens are going yellow and the reds starting to pop, but from a distance the overall swath blends to orange. After all, orange is the early side of red and the late end of yellow. Even brown in the sunshine and green on its dry dull side read orange from fifty feet away. It's the color of transition, of moving from lush to gone. The grasses and leaves and even the bark in these canyons break out oranges that are fiery in the day and drousy cool at night. Singed and cooled and singed again, this quick stretch of fall between summer and winter shouts orange.

Can I really expect them to resist?

So I started some other orange hats to ease up the tension. First for the baby. I put together a variation of Leef's Ear Flap Hat, with some extra orange rows on the bottom, and the second color (brown) all the way to the top. One of these days I'll learn how to use Ravelry and provide more details of the variations, but for now "a little more of this and a little less of that" is the best I have to offer. Beyond color changes, and mostly "knit" where it said to "purl," I followed the pattern (relatively) faithfully.

Two orange hats on hand, one more to go . . .