Invincible Summer

My first PS4 FO, and my second Amanda Hat.

It isn’t very green I know, but please bear with me for a few moments and I shall hope to convince you of the appropriateness of this project…

  • Cast on Date: March 1st, 2009
  • Cast on: Long Tail
  • Pattern: The Amanda Hat by Gina House
  • Pattern Price: Free
  • Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted
  • Quality: 100% Merino handspun
  • Weight: Aran
  • Length: 198 metres per 100g skein
  • Price: gained in a stash swap
  • Amount: tbc
  • Colour: Noviembre 275
  • Needles: 5.5 mm
  • Stitches: as written
  • Pattern Repeats: as written
  • Blocked: No
  • Finished Size: n/a
  • Cast Off: n/a
  • Cast Off Date: March 2nd, 2009
  • Ravelry Project: Invincible Summer

I received this yarn in a swap last week, the colour is “Noviembre.” I must say that this stuff absolutely rocks. It is unbelievably soft – soft as butter, as a whisper. Beautiful to knit with. I want to be rich. I want to wear sweaters made of this stuff.

Dying Roses
Dying Roses

I was going to set it aside, and work on something green – but I noticed that there was a green in the skein, the green of a rose leaf. I considered the yarn a little longer and concluded that it brought to mind the last rose of the year, blooming in the frost, if a little ravaged about the edges… there was the deep pink of the true flower and the faded colour of the petals washed with rain, plus that creamy brown colour that the frosted petals get and the yellowing foliage as it dies back.

A rose I snapped int he garden at Glenlivet in November 2005.
A rose I snapped in the garden at Glenlivet in November 2005.

Then I thought of this quotation:

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

Albert Camus

It resonated – this notion of Invincible Summer, and the way that roses will bloom with bravado in the depth of winter, well into December and even January in favoured locations (such as Plockton – I’ve seen them!) The seasons are not disconnected – each season holds a little of the others within it, and I have written before of how Spring, how Life, actually begins when the ewes are tupped and the fields are ploughed and seeded in the back end of the year.

There was something too about the Poles. If one stands at the North Pole, then all directions are South. Consider that for a moment.

Amanda 2 - Invincible Summer
Amanda 2 - Invincible Summer

So. Here is my Winter hat, named “Invincible Summer” as a reminder that each of the seasons holds a little of all within it and, somewhat like being at the North Pole – my hat points the way to Summer. Like the rose, it is rooted in the Earth – for the wool that made it comes from the sheep that graze the earth. Made with yarn that Rocks (ho, ho!) and which does have a fair bit of green in it, you know. All PS4 North points covered, I think. Result!

amanda-2-b
The crown

It’s a great hat – very soft and snuggly. This knitted up significantly smaller than the Paton’s Jet version. It will keep my head warm when the North wind blows. I might even wear it tonight, when I head due North of here to the Community School, where Craft Club is being held. I plan to take both the man sweater and my decoupage with me. I shall be industrious.