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From Wikipedia:

The geographical location some 350 km north of the Arctic circle means that Tromsø has both midnight sun and polar night.

The Midnight sun is above the northern horizon from about May 18 to July 26, although the mountains in the north block the view to the Midnight sun a few days, meaning that you can optically see the sun from about May 21 to July 21. Due to the position on top of the globe, the twilight is longer, meaning there is no real darkness between late April and mid August.

The sun remains below the horizon from about November 26 to January 15, but due to the mountains the sun is absent from the centre from November 21 to January 21. The return of the sun is an occasion for celebration. Due to the twilight, there is some daylight for a couple of hours even around mid winter, often with beautiful bluish light. The days lengthen quickly, and by February 21 the sun is above the horizon from 07:45 to 16:10, and April 1 from 05:50 to 19:50 (summertime).

I’m sure there are better, more lyrical descriptions of the season of darkness and winter light (which I assume refers to the polar night in these areas). A quick, cursory search online didn’t reveal any, and I sure have never been north of the Arctic circle myself to witness it. Once when I was in northern Minnesota I experienced Aurora Borealis (another phenomenon that occurs in Tromsø), and it was amazing and spectacular. Kind of hard to imagine that sort of thing being commonplace in your hometown.

This is my “night” - wonder if there’s a name for the midnight lights that make it impossible for New York to ever get dark enough to see stars.

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So after consideration of color schemes and yarn properties, I decided to go ahead and order the yarn kit for the Season of Darkness and Winter Light. For one thing, I think the yarn I originally picked out will be too soft and “drapey,” and this jacket really needs a firm structure. For another thing, although at first I wasn’t crazy about the original colors of the pattern, they have since grown on me, and now I really like them a lot. Plus it will be in better keeping with the theme and thought behind the design of the pattern (and its name). I do still love the alpaca yarn that I got originally (red and browns), and I’ll put my thinking cap on soon to come up with a suitable project for it.

The best news, however, is that someone else actually wants to knit this jacket! I have to credit Sharon with goading me into starting this bad boy. So now we will have our own little knitalong, and what a relief to have another soul to share this experience with. It will be crazy, I’m sure. Check out the colors she chose - very different from the original but I think it’ll look gorgeous.