riffs of color

It's all about orange and yellow now. And intense blue and green. The palette of aspens high up on the mountaintops (photographed from far away), my favorite socks, pumpkins, Dixon's golden apples.
     I remembered a book of poems that was published around 1995 called The Very Stuff. The subtitle is Poems on color, thread, and the habits of women. There it still was on my bookshelf squashed among knitting and travel books. I hadn't looked at it in years. The 43 poems were written by Stephen Beal, a fiber artist, who explores memoir through poems inspired by the colors of DMC embroidery floss. It's a sweet book. At the top of most of the pages and the beginnings of poems, is a small square of color with a number that refers to the DMC floss. I couldn't find a poem that specifically referred to orange but there must be one. If not, I'll have to write it. But not today. After I finish some of the tasks that are clamoring for attention, I plan to find an outdoor table at a coffee shop and spend some time with tea, scone, notebook, pen, maybe the sagebrush silk and cashmere clapotis I love working on but feel guilty about because the Yuletide fair and the unborn baby are looming ahead of me. Whew! Long sentence that tumbles along the way my days are tumbling along lately.
     Still, I managed to peruse the current Vogue. I look forward to that 2-inch thick September issue but this year it seems rather boring. I also occasionally browse a couple of blogs to see what the haute couturiers are up to. And here's what I learned today. Spring fashion will be all about flower prints and color (is this really new?). It will be interesting to see how it's interpreted in new yarns. Meanwhile I'll be right in the center of the fashion swirl of Taos with the Susan Todd knitting bag I bought many years ago and still have. 

Here's an aside for those of you reading this who live in actual cities with actual fashion trends (I know you're out there because I've heard from a few of you): Taos makes its own fashion statement which is, basically, Wear Whatever You Want. We have the Khaki Look (fashion-ready for a hiking emergency), the Turquoise and Feathers Look, the faded Anything Goes jeans look, grunge abounds among the high school set (an everywhere fad? it's ugly). Among other things, we are a fiber town so there's lots of knitted and felted stuff worn around here too. I'm sure if I researched it (how?) it would exceed the national trend which is usually sporadic and unsure of itself re handknits. Does that stop us? What do you think? Just try parking at the Wool Festival next weekend.

this is a color
that is the essence of fall
October yellow
driving chilly with the top down
through the streets of Watkins Glen