Okay, folks, let’s just slow down a moment!  We are barely past the 4th of July, not even 3 weeks into Summer and yet my email in box is filled with Fall knitting projects!  Sneak Peeks at wooly cabled sweaters and socks (socks! Good heavens, my toes are running wild and free and naked at last and someone has to bring up socks!).  And what madwoman invented the phrase “Christmas in July” I would like to know?!  Isn’t Christmas at Christmas enough for anyone?!

It is Summer, people!  I can finally sit out on the deck in the shade without shivering (sitting in the shade means I don’t have to wear sunglasses while I knit).  In fact, if our Pacific NW morning marine layer burns off by 3:00 or 4:00 in the sfternoon, there is still a good 6 hours of daylight left.  It is glorious!  Knitting at baseball games, knitting around the campfire, knitting by the pool, knitting on the beach — and this is the season for cotton and linen knitting.  In fact, I tried to knit on a wool lace shawl the other day and I couldn’t!  It was just too hot and heavy in my hands.

I will pretty much always chose knitting wool over knitting cotton because wool loves to be knit — it flows over the needles, stretching and relaxing back, and cuddles with the other stitches so happily.  Knitting with cotton, on the other hand, is like taking a toddler on a walk— kinda fun,  but awkward and not very relaxing.  However, I love to wear cotton and linen knits in warm weather.  So, Summer weather forces me to put down the wool and pick up the cooler plant fibers.  Perfect!

Of course, I get it — knitting’s biggest season is Fall.  What with cooler weather and all.  And with Christmas gift-giving on the horizon.  So, it make sense that all those who make their living from knitters need to get a foot in the door as early as possible.  And I recognize that she who wishes to wear a Fall sweater in Fall had best be thinking about it in Summer.  Knitting takes time.

I have arranged my own knitting calendar rather well, I think.  Because we always go to the Beach for a long stint in August — where it is cool enough (even in August) to handle wool and where sweaters are welcome (even in August).  So, I can get a reasonable start on my Fall knitting (tho do not even try to talk to me about Christmas in August!).

In fact, going to the Beach is such an integral part of our Summer that I can knit for it — even to the extent of knitting something a little wooly.  Like the Beach Q’mitl I have been swatching up.  Tho that is morning or evening knitting, of course — not afternoon on the deck knitting 🙂

So, I guess I am guilty of my own Fall Knitting Sneak Peek — but I am not going to get caught up in the rush to the next season like retailers all around us (yeah, have ever tried to buy a pair of kid’s sandals in late July? — you would have better luck shopping for Halloween decorations! But I digress…).  If you want me, I’ll be out on the deck wrestling good-naturedly with my cotton yarn until the mosquitos come out 🙂