. . . O’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley
Hello, everyone! How are you doing? Our Making Light plans (as well as all our other plans, frankly) have been somewhat scuppered by storm Éowyn which, on Thursday evening, took out all the power in our part of Kintyre. We have no electricity, hot water, internet, or mobile signal, but are counting ourselves very lucky: our log burner is keeping us warm, our wee camping stove is providing us with hot food and tea, and we have a lot of candles. We really are lucky: high waves destroyed a portion of the coast road at nearby Carskey Bay, and there’s quite a lot of damage locally to both property and trees. But at our brilliant village hall in Southend, we have been able to check in with our supportive neighbours, and recharge our USB power packs for lights and torches. This morning, some public services have reopened in nearby Campbeltown, and so here we are, using the Aqualibrium WiFi to release the jolly hat pattern I had hoped to bring to you on Burns’ Night, two days ago.
The hat’s name is Sonsie, which is a marvellous Scots word meaning jolly and cheery, hale and hearty, propitious and lucky. The word famously appears in the first line of Robert Burns Address to a Haggis: “Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face / Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race!”
I’d wanted to release the pattern on January 25th, Robert Burns’ birthday, the day when Scots around the world celebrate the life and work of our national poet. Burns’ night is always a great excuse for a feast and some fun in a month which can seem rather dreary: a joyous ritual of poetry and song, good food and good cheer. Burns’ Night suppers can be quite fancy or formal public affairs, but we usually celebrate at home with food and music, family and friends. Tom cooks a tasty supper of haggis, neeps and tatties, my dad pipes in the haggis with his saxophone and on other occasions, I’ve done so with a kazoo. The best reciter of the address I’ve ever heard is without doubt our friend Ivor, whose performance always has appropriate dramatic gusto. We’ve had to postpone our Burns’ Night this year for obvious reasons, but be assured we shall be celebrating with a sonsie haggis as soon as our power is restored!
Knitted in the same two tone palette as Ciar, Sonsie features high-contrast colourwork and a satisfying seven-point crown.
The hat comes in two sizes – a closer fitting beanie and a roomier slouch.
I like a slouchy hat these days, and I’m wearing the larger size in these photographs.
We’ve Sonsie kits now available in the KDD shop, and, if you are a Making Light subscriber, your Sonsie pattern will be winging its way to your Ravelry libraries or inboxes as we speak.
I had many plans for Making Light this week, but, given our current situation I would ask club members to be a little patient: things are logistically quite difficult for us at the moment in Kintyre, and there is only so much we can practically do without any electricity. We are very grateful to Kate C and Kendall (KDDs brilliant warehouse team) as well as for Maylin and Claire, who are managing the Ravelry group and club during this period of uncertainty. We know that the guys from SSEN are working round the to restore power to us and our neighbours, and we really hope we’ll be back at our desks, and eating our sonsie haggis supper soon. Look after yourselves, and enjoy the Sonsie hat!
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I’m glad you’re getting through the storm! And my thoughts are with those who are still dealing with the effects. We’ve had a couple weeks of temperatures in the teens, dropping to subzero (Fahrenheit) in Colorado. I do love the cold, woolly weather though!
Merci beaucoup pour ce nouveau chapeau magnifique. Bon courage et force en cette période très venteuse .
Wondered how you were getting on up there. Here in Downunder the temperatures have been up to 45’C in some places.
Wow – we are definitely at two extremes, Catriona!
wow, you have and still are going through a lot with that storm. So glad your house is okay and you have heat snd cooking abilities. The hat looks wonderful!
Yousa, my niece in Ireland also got slammed. so sorry you also got it but sounds like you were well set and not cold.
Burns nicht is whenever you want it!
Love from here.
Glad to hear that everyone is alive and well and making the best of an adverse situation. No worries, the world has gone a bit crazy everywhere these days.
Kate et al Keep safe and warm. So glad no structural damage. I am off to read about your storm! Thanks for a great hat pattern.
As delighted as I am to cast on for Sonsie today, we fully understand the vagaries of extreme weather on the other side of the pond and are only glad you and yours are warm and safe. Best wishes to your whole community for the smooth restoration of power and rebuilding together. I hope you can embrace the period of enforced rest as best possible.
Meanwhile a recent move from one part of the United States to another has landed my family in a community that includes some devoted Scottish Americans. So this past Saturday we enjoyed our second Burns Night, complete with haggis, neeps and tatties, bagpipes, Highland dancers, clan tartans aplenty, a Burns educational lecture, song and dance, and of course The Address. What a lovely spot of cheer in the middle of cold January. We toasted to KDD!
How lovely, Gretchen, slainte!
Good to hear that Campbeltown has electricity. Pity it hasn’t got out to you yet. I think it often gets put back in towns before rural areas. We were lucky in our small town in north Cumbria (Brampton) – only off 5 hours on Friday, but outlying villages took longer. I’m impressed by your leisure centre/library. I’m sure it was not there at the only time I visited, about 12 years ago
Take whatever time you need. Situations like these take their toll on us even when we aren’t as impacted as others, or impacted at all. We carry the emotional burden of our neighbours, whether near or far. The world is small. Wishing you strength through the next days.
Love the hat and looking forward to whatever other surprises to come with the Making Light Book. Glad to hear you “weathered” the storm and hope everything returns to normal for you soon. We’ve gone days without power here in the middle of winter in Canada and know how tough it can be. Glad you are both safe and no damage to your home.
Such are the ‘joys’ of living in a Climate Changed world. Gives you a real chance of empathy with the people of, ooh, Florida, the Caribbean, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc who have routine Cyclone Seasons every year, sometimes for 6 months. Also flimsier infrastructure and homes, so they’ve barely time to rebuild from the previous year’s devastation before the next storms come blattering through!
Do hope you have power restored soon, & so good to hear that the community is pulling together there. We’ve had Hermina for the past couple of days. Wet, wet, and more wet, alternating with Sunshine today. So glad we live on a slope!
Take all the time you need recovering
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Totally understand and you must look after yourselves and neighbours first xx
Thank you so much for getting the pattern out. It is so hard post storm with no electricity and many more important things to do than get a pattern out. We live near Asheville, North Carolina and know just how devastating storms can be.Both patterns are really great. Love the colors and the designs. I have made a number of your patterns and love th
Glad you are safe from the storm and have a way to stay warm! We’ve been watching that from Minnesota, US and the videos we have seen have been quite amazing in a powerful storm kind of way.
Thank you for letting us know. Please take care of yourselves, it is hard going through something like this. I am glad you have resources available to you so that life is somewhat normal. I love my new patterns. Take care.
Stay warm! We suffered a similar fate last week on an island off the coast of North Carolina with very cold weather and an even more unusual several inches of snow on this subtropical island. It isn’t so bad when the only thing you do is read, drink tea and stay cozy!
Good to hear that all is well with yourself, Tom and the dogs ( who may be a bit stir crazy). I hope that your power is back on soon. The weather is mad at the moment, we are currently having our share of wind and rain, with a bit of hail thrown in, but nothing like the weather you have had. Excited as everyone is about the club I think everyone has projects on the go, we are knitters after all and have an appropriate stash to draw on, so I think we can cope with waiting a wee bit longer for patterns to be released. Take care.
So glad that you are all safe after the storm. Enjoy your haggis when you eventually get it.
I’m glad you’re all safe after Storm Ḗowyn. Thank you for another brilliant pattern!
Hello Kate. Love the pattern and the name of the hat. I was reminded of a great discussion on between Michael Rosen and Jackie Kay on Radio 4 yesterday. “Jackie Kay has written a book in Scots: Coorie Doon: A Scottish Lullaby Story. She joins presenter Michael Rosen to talk about her love of the language and what it meant to her growing up.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00274yk . I hope you find time, amidst all the mayhem (or later), to catch up on it.
no stress. Just stay safe . Patterns will come alive on whichever day they arrive. I’m embarrassed to say it was ‘ just a bit windy’ down our way.
Thank you for the lovely hat pattern, Kate. I hope you and your neighbours get your power back soon and that you enjoy your Burns night supper.
At the other end of the land – Isle of Wight – we had a wet and windy-ish night but not so wild – hope all is or will be restored soon! We did manage to do Burn’s Night for 11 so lots of haggis was consumed! Love the pattern!!