I am a seasonal knitter. You will not find me churning out wool scarves for Christmas gifts in July. Nor will you find me producing cotton summer tops in January — which means that I am casting on my summer wardrobe about now. And that means that the likelihood of my completing all my summer lovelies in time to wear them this summer is low. One of my September traditions is The Hibernating Of The Summer Knitting — somewhat overlapped by the Resurrection Of The Autumn Knitting.
Thus, as each season commences, I find myself with nearly-finished projects perfectly suited to the time of year. The prospect of a new — and seasonally appropriate — knit garment motivates me through the sometimes wearisome finishing up bits and I tend to feel especially virtuous (whether or not I really deserve to) when I rescue and complete a hibernated piece. All in all, it is not a bad system. It works for me.
So that is how I came to be out on the back deck puzzling through a pretty-close-to-done Linum Tee (by Bristol Ivy) — a linen top with lacy-ish shoulders (accomplished by a loose Fisherman’s Rib that took me some time to come to terms with because it just didn’t look right — but that is last summer’s story…).
I love linen. I love wearing it. I love knitting it. It is the liveliest of yarns and every stitch stands alone as an individual — the knitted linen garment is like a flock of birds or a tree of fluttering leaves. This makes it a bit challenging to work with, of course, as every variation in tension shows up as a wonky stitch. I consider this part of the knitted linen garment’s charm. Especially as it is pretty much impossible to keep those lively stitches uniform (unless you are knitting at a tight gauge). As I knit, the linen yarn leaps around the needle and the stitch I am knitting into does whatever it feels like doing! It can be pretty fun.
But beware of leaving your linen knitting unattended! Given the smallest opportunity, linen will make a break for it. I keep my linen yarn balls in small ziplock bags. I put point protecters on the needles when I put the knitting away. I never, never set down my linen knitting mid-row — particularly not near the end of the row when there are just a few stitches left on one point of a circular needle and especially not when knitting a loose pattern stitch that involves dropping stitches and slipping the first stitch and when there is short row-ing with wrapped stitches involved….not unless the 7-month-old grand-baby I am watching for just a few minute while her mother takes a phone call falls over on her face on the wood deck…..
When I got back to my knitting, there was a stringy mess falling off my needle! And my linen knitting was snickering.