Terra Cotta

When I was going through my yarn stash, taking pictures to add to Ravelry, I was surprised to discover the amount of orange I had. I do not normally think of myself as an orange sort of person, but there were all sorts of rusty shades, waiting to be combined with greens, blues, and purples. Lately, russet tones have been infiltrating my wardrobe, and most days if I'm not wearing turquoise, I'm wearing something that's rich and orange-toned.

When I was a child, I had a book called When the Sky Is Like Lace, filled with lovely purple-shaded illustrations, and one of its admonitions was that, on a night when the sky is like lace, you should not wear orange, "not even underneath." This always amused me then, because I owned nothing at all that was orange, let alone "underneath."

Now I have a wardrobe that speaks of falling leaves, and rich brown dirt, and purple twilights, and large silent conifers (colors that supposedly belong to men, just like how cedars and sages and pines infuse their toiletries and not those of women). I am wearing orange, though still not underneath, and as I step briskly to work, the harmony of my socks and my shirt and those multi-toned leaves beneath my feet feels as right as the crispness of fall air.

I think it's time to go buy a pumpkin!

Comments

[Amanda]

I'm trying to decide on a sweater project for the remainder of fall, and I've been gravitating to orange yarn like crazy. Bright orange, reddish orange, terra-cotta orange, light cantaloupe-ish orange -- practically every orange shade on the spectrum. (And then I wonder, will it make me look like a pumpkin if I make a sweater out of it? I really like this sweater, but I'm too lazy to make anything with a zipper.)

It's got to be the season...

[Rana]

I really like that sweater, and I don't think you'd look like a pumpkin if it was the right color of orange.

Zippers are actually easier than you might think - but I bet that sweater would still look good just hanging open. :)

[butuki]

I'm still trying to reason "Why not orange? And why not underneath, where the embers really burn?"

I have never been able to get past the first ten stitches when attempting to learn how to knit; I always give up in hair-pulling frustration. But sewing on zippers is a cinch. If I can learn to sew zippers and you can learn to sew, then you most definitely can sew a zipper!

[Rana]

I don't know "why not orange" - something about the magic of those nights not working?

But as a clothing color, for a long time I was afraid of the really bright oranges. I don't look good in them, and I was still scarred from the bright yellow pants incident...