A Route of Evanescence

by Emily Dickinson

A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel --
A Resonance of Emerald --
A Rush of Cochineal --
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head --
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning’s Ride --

This was the original hat that I tried to make for my mother for her Hanukkah gift. My mom is a huge birder but her favourite of all the birds is the hummingbird. In a way, it reminds me of her - small but energetic, tiny but vivacious. The hummingbird’s energy shows their zest for life, and my mother has that same undying ember in her.

This is, obviously, not a hat. I created this pattern myself but hadn’t ever made a coulourwork fingering weight hat before. I came up with the design and began happily knitting around and around, slowly watching the picture I had drawn come alive. I was just to the top of the hummingbirds heads (in other words, very nearly done) only to realize that I probably needed to start the decreases. (I had failed to add those into the pattern…obviously, this was a trial run.) I went to try it on to figure out if I needed to start them…only to discover it wouldn’t fit on my head. I could get the very bottom of it on, but it stopped about 2 inches up, looking an awful lot like a chef’s toque. After some horrified research of other patterns, I discovered that I had not only failed to add in decreases, I had totally misunderstood the need for increases. Since the first night of Hanukkah was barely 24 away at this point, I wrapped the pattern and too-small hat in a box to see if my mother even liked it or wanted different colours. In the end, she opted for a different background colour. When I finished her hat, I decided to just complete this as well. I knew it could never be a hat, but I originally pictured it as a cowl. It seems to be the wrong size for that, so right now it’s just a lovely little panel. We might sew it onto a canvas bag or something, but I love how this shows the design in its entirety, trumpet vines and all.