Life With Wool
Orange You Glad It’s November?
Greetings from Maine!
It always happens like clockwork. The minute the trick-or-treaters go to bed, the pumpkins are put away, calendar flips to November, I start craving the colors of a turkey dinner.
I reach for my earthiest and most heathered autumnal woolens—the plaid flannels and woolen-spun cardigans and hats and scarves and socks and shawls that evoke visions of baked apples and cornmeal stuffing, of cranberry sauce and Brussels sprouts and pumpkin pie.
Clothed in the colors of nature, in the fibers of nature, I long to step outside, walk through the field, and step into the woods, blending into nature and becoming one with it.
Only I can’t, because it’s November.
With the exception of Sundays, when hunting isn’t permitted, all plans to responsibly navigate the great outdoors must also include a heaping helping of a jarring hue called “blaze orange.” It’s not unique to Maine. If you live in a rural part of the country where hunting occurs, you know about blaze orange.
Not quite blaze-y enough.
It began in 1959, when the U.S. Army undertook a massive study to figure out what color was most visible to the human eye—the goal being to mitigate hunting accidents. Testing under different light and weather and geographic conditions and including people with color vision deficiency, they declared fluorescent orange the clear winner.
The color was doubly ideal since deer have dichromatic vision that only detects greens and blues. Their eyes would only register fluorescent orange as a dull, brownish gray. But to us, the same color screams, “Hey! Human coming through!”
A year after the study was completed, a man named Frank Woolner wrote an article in Field & Stream called, “Hunter Orange—Your Shield of Safety.” And in that article, the term “blaze orange” was born.
Soon states started mandating that hunters wear blaze orange during firearm hunting season. Blaze orange has since become its own kind of social fabric, a textile-based collective agreement to keep each other safe.
If heathered woolens are the textile equivalent of a turkey dinner, blaze orange is more akin to a Twizzler, Twinkie, and Slim Jim burrito doused in fluorescent chemical dyes. Blaze orange is a color that does not occur in nature, and most blaze orange clothing is made of fibers that do not occur in nature, either.
Where can you buy this this blaze orange attire? I can’t speak for others, but I prefer to frequent the most exclusive establishment in town, our local hardware store.
You’ll usually find a stack of shiny polyester hats by the check-out counter, along with a heap of vests that, to the untrained eye, appear to be nothing more than pieces of fabric connected by Velcro tags. (And to the trained eye, that’s exactly what they are.) But at $10 or less, nobody’s really complaining. Style isn’t the goal here.
The color is not without its challenges. In her book, To Dye For, Alden Wicker draws fairly damning connections between our declining health and the prevalence of clothing made from coal-derived fibers treated with potentially toxic and largely unregulated chemical dyes.
She urges readers to stay away from synthetic fibers and supersaturated, ultra-bright, or neon colors, whose chemical composition can be the most problematic.
I’m happy to oblige. But I’ve also had to accept the fact that being mistaken for a deer would be even more problematic. And so during the month of November I willingly add a few more chemicals and coal to my wardrobe. I compromise.
But what if you just bought a pretty skein of wool yarn and made your hat out of that instead? Orange has so many permutations, from muted to perky to pale to pastel. There are oranges that make us smile, that make our mouths pucker, that make us squint, that bring solace or sunshine into our world. There are the oranges of bonfires and sunsets and pumpkins.
Against all these shades, blaze orange rises to entirely different levels of industrial strength. It’s a color so loud and electric that it’s usually reserved for traffic cones and hazard strips and emergency worker uniforms. It’s so garish, in fact, that it transforms any other “bright” orange wool yarn into a far more tender, velvety creamsicle of loveliness than it could ever be on its own.
Close enough.
Last year I found a convincingly blaze-y orange Merino hat from outdoor retailer Minus33.com, although I still insist on wearing the hardware-store vest. If you’d prefer to knit your own accessories, Maine’s historic Bartlett Yarns has a Bright Orange colorway conceived expressly for this time of year.
I’m still not a fan of loud colors or fibers derived from coal, but I’m also not a fan of being mistaken for a deer and mounted over someone’s fireplace. And so I’ll accept this dollop of ugh atop my turkey dinner wardrobe, even for those quick trips to the compost pile, and especially at dawn and dusk.
It breaks all my rules, and I wouldn’t live without it.
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Thanks for the history of blaze orange- us city girls need to know this. I saw the Bartlett yarns Blaze orange at Rhinebeck this year and loved it! Orange is one of my favorite colors!
Then November is your month, Peggy! Orange for miles!
Ha! Love orange
I wonder if nearer the equator (Costa Rica and such) there are birds like parrots that in their plumage there could be found some shades akin to blaze orange. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought of this. But haven’t investigated yet! Not much of a scientists, am I??
I bet you’re right. I’ll make the sacrifice and go there in, say, February to investigate?
Not just rural environs, dear Clara. Here in the “wilds” of suburban Massachusetts, there’s a field that fades into a small, scrubby wood and come November we can hear the gunshots. There are deer there; we see them occasionally in the manicured back yards of the neighborhood. Perhaps I should be wearing blaze orange when I’m out walking the dog.
Oh yikes! Definitely sounds like a blaze orange wardrobe addition for you and your dog could be useful.
Thanx for sharing! I’m looking at an orange hoodie as we speak.
Hooray for orange hoodies!
Ah yes, the ending of bow hunting season here in upstate N.Y., which almost coincides with the start of gun hunting season.
Our local Agway farm store carries Carhartt-branded dog coats in blaze orange, so you can protect your dogs from being mistaken for deer while taking walks.
SNAZZY!
My favorite shade of orange? International Orange; the official color of the Golden Gate Bridge. But alas, that wouldn’t keep you safe in the November woods. Thank you for your storytelling, it’s always magnificent.
Ahhhh that is one of the most beautiful shades of orange, isn’t it?
Be careful out there!
I will!
” I’ve also had to accept the fact that being mistaken for a deer would be even more problematic.” I love that line. I giggled. I have lived in a lot of rural areas in my life so I have known a lot of hunters and all about blaze orange. Which, by the way, orange in general, is not one of my favorite colors. I’m more of a Winter, for those of you who remember back in the 90’s when everyone was doing their colors. By I digress. I love you Clara and hopefully you’ll make through November with all woolies in tact. Stay warm and safe!
PS It’s actually going to get down in the freezing temps here in SC (at night) so I’m excited because I can break out my wool sweaters. Yeah!
I promise – and you enjoy the arrival of wool weather there in SC!
Compromise! It’s what the world needs right now. You could adapt this into a fill-in-the-blanks essay and apply it to anything. Thanks for such a good read.
Compromise and coexistence, self-preservation while looking out for the greater good. These are the times, aren’t they?
Born and raised in Maine and moved to Virginia in my late 30’s. Living in West Buxton we knew when it was time to break out the Blaze Orange. I miss Autumn in ME the most. Still have my stepdad’s Blaze Orange hat with ear flaps. Not something I would ever wear in Richmond!
My favorite shade of orange is that beautiful shade currently being worn by some of the maple trees here in middle Tennessee. The reds are pretty amazing too.
The Plucky Knitter also has a colorway called Hunter’s Safety. You can see Sarah’s Halibut Sweater in their Rhinebeck Instagram posts where the halibuts are Hunter’s Safety against a gray background. Warning: though fetching this is not a sufficient amount for the purpose Clara is describing.
Interesting info about blaze orange. I have my vest for when I ride, and I put blaze orange duct tape stripes on my helmet. The season is short enough that I don’t want to knit anything in that color!
Blaze orange gear is worn by us when hiking from September on, because bow hunting starts in early September here in Colorado. Thanks for a fun, and funny, read, Clara! Stay safe out there!