It’s always interesting this time of year — with the sun getting brighter and the days longer — to see blog traffic dipping a little bit as some people’s attention turns elsewhere. I am so spoiled (in this regard) by living in a place where it’s never truly summer that I forget knitting is seasonal for some people. It’s impossible for me to imagine putting knitting out of my mind for even a week, let alone a few months. But then I remember one day where it really was blazing hot (by our standards), and my palms were sweating and I thought the idea of handling wool sounded positively ghastly. So I glimpsed it for a moment, but I also have this idea that people in hot climates have air conditioning (also foreign to me), so does it matter whether it’s hot outside? This may sound really ignorant, but it’s weird and hard, living in a place with no weather, to remember what it’s like elsewhere. So this is my Q for You: Do you knit/crochet all year? If you do, do you work differently, with different fibers? If not, do you switch hobbies to something else? Or are you a person who spends all summer cranking away at your woolly holiday gifts?
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Yes…I knit all.year.long! I’m planning Christmas gifts, birthday gifts, and looking for new techniques and, as always, new yarn! When all else fails, and I need a “go to” knit, it is typically dishcloths to add to my stash for gift-giving. I try to always have some on hand.
Gardening competes for knitting time; but I still knit, just not as much.
Knitting is my passion and I knit all year round. Since my hands tend to warm up as I’m knitting, I prefer to use metal needles, either straight or circular, rather than wood. My new year’s resolution is to handknit Christmas gifts rather than store bought products. You made the case for the “Acer” cardigan so well, that I want to make it for myself.
I absolutely love “FringeAssociation” website. It’s now on my “Top Sites” section !
Thank you, Katherine!
I learned to knit the year I lost my garden. Can definitely see how weekend time would be competition between the two.
In summer I prefer crochet and cotton yarn, my hands sweat too much for real wool. I also read a lot more when is hot, sitting comfortably under a tree or in my knitting chair with a fan. For this summer I suspect I won´t be knitting as much as I´m discovering gardening.
I switch to smaller projects and non-wool fibers (especially cotton), but never put the needles down.
Knitting has become a bit like reading – if I don’t do a little bit each day, I get agitated. I’m lucky that I live in the UK where it never gets super, super hot so I have no problems knitting with wool all the time. That said, I’m completely into knitting some summer garments at the moment so cotton is on the needles. I’ll probably start a big cozy cabled jumper sometime in July.
I keep knitting too, although admittedly I don’t live in particularly hot climes. The Japanese have neatly solved the heat issue by dedicating entire tomes to linen and cotton knitting.
Yes, but like valejandra, I tend to crochet a bit more in the summer whereas in the winter it’s almost exclusively knitting, and in the hot seasons I definitely use hot-weather fibers like cotton and linen and rayon. I always like to be working on something I can wear that season, so it’s lots of openwork stuff in the summer, whether it’s knit or crochet! We don’t have lots of AC in Sichuan, so it’s pretty hot and very humid whether you’re inside or out, day or night.
I am putting away my one mitten and putting the one inch that was started of the other into the UFO basket, and switching to a sock yarn shawlette for spring wear (even though we are getting a March snow storm here in the Northeast!). Totally knit all year, switching to different fiber, changing the order of projects in my queue, still not enough time to get all my projects done each season!
Im in my gardening mode now. Always try to continue with the knitting, works well to do so to finish Christmas gifts on time
My summer knitting does not deviate from my cold weather knitting in that I don’t do enough of it. But I don’t switch fibers or anything. To me, if it’s not a big wooly blanket that I will have laying over my lap, it doesn’t really matter.
Duh, of course I knit a ton more in the summer! As a teacher, don’t we both finally have more time?
I hadn’t thought of that perspective!
I love to knit year-round. I really enjoyed watching my little ones in the pool (from the shade!) with a bit of knitting in my lap this past summer and plan on doing the same this year. My knitting progress really slows during Lent though. I like to sit on the couch in the evenings with my knitting and the television on, but we try to eliminate tv during Lent. Oh well!
You can’t knit with the tv off? I’m curious what you do instead.
I’ve been sitting outside on the porch swing on fine days while my children play in the yard. I think that the real problem for me is the silence at night… I need a little background
noise!
When I lived in Northern California, for sure. I knit just as much in the summer as in the winter. But now that we’ve moved to Maine? Not so much. I didn’t do much knitting at all last summer. I was way too busy gardening and soaking up every little bit of sunshine and gorgeous weather to prepare for the coming winter. And now that it is winter, I’ve done heaps more knitting than I would have done in a California winter.
I crochet almost exclusively with lace weight yarn. I do expand into linen, cotton, and other fibers in the hotter months, but I continue to crochet with wool throughout those months.
I live on a sheep farm and therefore am obligated to knit with wool year round. It’s a tough job ;-) In the summer months I usually choose a lighter weight wool and knit more lace work. One thing I can not do is knit Christmas ornaments in the summer. I’ve never tried but am sure it can’t be done. I got addicted to knitting Christmas balls mid-December last year and worked frantically to finish several before the 25th. I hope the impulse strikes me earlier this year but I know it won’t come in the summer.
That is a tough job.
The first summer I knit, I did an afghan for my daughter, in wool. I was getting horribly hot each night with the growing blanket but stuck to it. The next summer, which was last year, I switched to silk and cotton blends, and light lace yarn for a lovely shawl. So knitting is year round for me, but definitely going for lighter wool, linen, cotton or bamboo as temperatures rise. I love in Montreal with no air conditioning, and summers can get pretty hot.
But this year I’m determined to start my summer knitting in April, so that I can least wear my summer sweaters in season.
And I do not stop reading my favorite knitting blogs either ;-)
I meant “I live in Montreal” – I love it too.
Since learning to knit almost four years ago I haven’t missed a day of knitting. I knit year around and I knit every where… the beach, standing in line, out to dinner, the movies,.ect. It’s a great addiction :)
Yes here in the deep south we have a/c, I would melt without it.
I live in NYC and, for me, the knitting continues all year round. Small changes are made for summer knitting like the size of the project (fingering weight wool for socks) or a change in fiber (linen for sweaters). And if the weather gets especially hot and we are locked in our air conditioned apartment – the wool comes out and mitten/scarf/sweater knitting continues :)
I live in the AZ desert and I knit year round! I wish I had more opportunities to wear sweaters though. However I have relatives and friends in New England who love hand knits.
I pretty much keep to my crafty habits all year round but in the summer I’m more inclined to work with thinner yarns and lighter weights.
I knit smaller things in summer- socks, hats, mitts. I can’t imagine a day without knitting. Plus, summer means car trips and I usually get to be the passenger as my hubby likes to drive. Those are good times!
My favorite thing about car trips these days is the knitting time. Sadly I don’t get to take many road trips, but I’ve always loved it.
Like others said, gardening competes for knitting time for me, but it could never completely go away. I also live in a place where it never gets really warm, except for about 2 weeks in the summer. I used to knit with cotton in the summer, but my hands ache from that now, and so I stick with the elasticity of wool because it doesn’t hurt. I did visit my mom down in Arizona one year in March, and brought some alpaca/wool mix yarn to work with while I was there. My hands were sweating, it was impossible! I don’t know how I would survive living in a warm climate, unable to knit for half the year. Knitting is my sanity, and I think I would need to find at least something rhythmic and wool related to survive.
I knit year-round. I’m in Upstate New York, so our summers are hot but not horrible. I don’t consciously choose to knit with different fibers when it’s hot, but the urge to knit a wool sweater isn’t as strong in July . (I waited until September for that.) This year I’m trying to buck the trend of finishing a garment just when the season changes. I’ve started a yellow cotton skirt, which should be finished around the time it’s finally warm enough to wear it. At the rate we’re going, that’ll be May!
Most definitely! I tend to spin more in the summer, too. I crave sock knitting during the summer–even at the beach.
I knit year round, and my knitting habits don’t change at all. Even though it gets ridiculously hot and humid here, I still knit with wool. We have A/C though so maybe my answer would be different if we didn’t.
My knitting comes in waves…weirdly, my favorite time of the year to knit is in August, which is definitely the hottest month here in KS. I think at that point, I’m so tired of summer, I’m cold from all of the over-air conditioned buildings, and I’m craving fall. Last August I spent the whole month knitting a woolly cardigan. Now, even though we’re barely scratching the surface of spring, I’ve dropped knitting in favor of embroidering colorful flowers on pretty much anything I can get my hands on. I think I must be trying to force the change of seasons with my crafting :)
I binge-knit a few times a year. So it’s not necessarily seasonal, per se. I generally have a cycle of going mad with the knitting, and then getting burned out for a bit. Of course, a couple of months later I get the itch again and another binge begins (I’m currently in the middle of a 6 project binge right now, but that was precipitated by an injury that has made me rather more sedentary than I really like). I do tend to knit fewer garments in the summer, but I’ll still make lots of knit toys and such since I generally start my X-mas crafting in mid-summer (though I still always have way too much to do and am sorely behind by December 1st. . .). I live in Toronto, so while it never gets SUPER-HOT for too long, we do often have pretty sweltering summers, though I’ve never actually had a hand-sweating issue. . .
When I started knitting again a few years ago, I realized that as soon as the whiff of spring hit the Northwest and the beaches and garden called, the knitted went by the wayside. Not any more. MUST KNIT or crochet all year long now. And its rarely so hot in the Pacific NW that wool feels over the top. But I do have a small stash of cotton that I can fall back on.
I’m new to knitting, but it’s quickly becoming a happy obsession!
When the weather warms my garden, and hiking will definitely call out to me.
But in the evenings knitting is a great way to hunker down for that last hour – quiets the mind and results in something amazing!
So all year long is my answer (and yes, air con is probably the reason I’m saying this)
I knit all year, and actually prefer to work on large wooly projects either in the coldest days of winter or in my (overly) air conditioned living room in high summer! And how would I ever get holiday knitting done if I waited until the weather turned cool before starting? I’m not a big fan of cotton, but will use it for smaller projects or if I’m going to be knitting outdoors.
I live in the Seattle area and totally agree that we are really lucky to be able to knit year around! I love it. That being said..I tend to knit in the winter/spring and spin in the summer/fall. Not sure why but it just feels right to me!
I do knit and crochet all year. In past summers I’ve made shawls and bags if I want to make something more seasonal and/or less toasty.
I also just knit a pair of shorts: http://instagram.com/p/laE54vuMbw/
cute!
I definitely knit less in the summer. I live in NYC so summers here are generally horrible. I do still do some knitting but drastically less than in the summer. It’s just too much to sit with a pile of wool in my lap. I am thinking of experimenting with some linens and cottons this year to fix this issue but we’ll see. I am originally from the Pacific Northwest so I never understood seasonal knitting until about 3 years ago. I found my mind wandering to light an airy sewing projects this morning so that might be my new coping mechanism for the sweltering summers.
yes I do, but a little less in the summer. Summer is for knitting with linen, crocheting with cotton and other little projects.
I like to knit or crochet all year long, but during the summer months I tend to switch to smaller projects worked with cotton yarn. The summer in Denmark is usually not that hot (about 20-25 degrees Celsius), so on the cooler days there is no problem with knitting or crocheting – unless you are working on a huge project with warm wool.
You comment about air conditioning is funny and I can totally relate to it. :-) In Denmark, we do not have air conditioning either.
All year long! Living in the Pacific Northwest (small island off southwest coast of Canada), climate really doesn’t interfere, but even when I travel into heat (rarely my choice, quite honestly) I’ll pack knitting. . . . laceweight is good (I knit Rowan’s kidsilk Birch one summer — it floats in a summer breeze), and socks are small enough that they don’t overheat. . .
I love to knit all year round unless it’s oppressively hot, which, let’s face it, is probably only for a couple of days a year here in northwest of the UK! ;-)
I live in Maine and find I actually knit quite a bit in the summer, if only to have something to do with my hands while at the beach with my kids. But I do often switch to smaller projects (like hats) or something in cotton or linen or hemp. There is something about the contrast between the woolly hat on my lap and the sand on my feet that I love!
Yes, I knit all year round. I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t. When it’s really warm, I might switch to slippers, socks and other small projects. But I’ve had to wait so long to learn how to knit (and beginning to learn crochet) that I can’t imagine not knitting if you know how!
Yes and yay! I do knit year-round, but probably a bit less in the summer because of the longer days and outdoor garden work. Nothing like a cold drink, movie, and a bit of knitting after a day of good work!
YES! I am lost without a knitting project. ;)
I would absolutely love to knit in summer. But the summers here in southern BC are dreadful, and we have no air conditioning. So, with sweaty hands, I can’t get the yarn to travel through my hands. That’s a problem with both knitting and crocheting. So I just read a lot more, including knitting blogs, while dreaming of cooler times when I can get back to knitting.
Yes! I love knitting. I usually change the fibres I use in the summer and I usually knit smaller things like baby clothing in the summer. Although I knitted a cardigan last summer and it was hard in the heat.
Yes, all year round and I live in So. Cal. I rarely knit with worsted weight yarns and during the summer I knit with cotton and linens. I would be lost without my knitting…
Yes, I too live “in a place where it’s never truly summer.” In my case, it’s the Oregon coast, and yes, we are very lucky. That being said, my projects are influenced by the seasons. For instance, I am about to start knitting a willow scarf based on the leafy Eden scarf in Knitalong, by Larissa Brown. It’s been fun looking for yarns that reference the delicate look of early-spring willow leaves and branches!
I knit year round with whatever fiber I feel like. I am very lucky!
Here in Sydney, Australia, we don’t really get winter! I knit a lot with silk and lighter weight wool, and knit all year round. What I miss is the chance to knit some of the lovely projects I see. Not much call for fair isle beanies here…
I know what you mean. There are so many woolly, wintry things I’d love to knit that are just totally inappropriate in our mild climate.
I dream of knitting by the fire, by a sunny window and at the pool. It’s like reading and praying for me. There’s always a good reason to do it!
I knit just about every day, even if it’s just one row of stockinette before I collapse into bed. No heavy sweater knitting in the summer though.
I would bet that I knit at least 360 days out of the year. It gets VERY hot out here in the Central Valley, but I still knit just about every day. In warmer months I generally knit socks and lace shawls, or other small projects that don’t require large amounts of wool to sit on my lap.
Side note: I have also recently come to the conclusion that i should only knit my sweaters out of fingering/sport weight and lighter yarns; our “winter” just doesn’t require bulkier knits, and I’d hate to spent the time/effort/money on something I can only wear a couple of days out of the year :-/
It’s been so warm in the bay area this winter I have hardly worn a sweater. Sad!
Living in London where it’s never really cold cold or hot hot (or only for a couple of days at a time) then yes, knitting really is a year-round occupation (or job). Having said that, I can go for weeks without knitting, sometimes months, if it just works out that what needs doing is pattern writing / grading – after a day of intensive writing / grading then all I want is an evening of BBC 6 Music or Sherlock / BBC 4 comedy on i-Player and a glass of wine, no knitting at all.
Thanks for the reminder — I keep meaning to try that Sherlock series.
I am definitely a year-round knitter. Summers do get blazing hot here, but in Canada you always know winter isn’t far off. I tend to work on smaller projects in the summer (lots of socks) and last year knit myself a linen tank, which I’m considering doing again this year.
Well we don’t really get any heat here IMO – the locals would say otherwise. I spend all summer anxiously thinking winter is coming better start knitting something warm. So I do!
I live in south Texas, which is indistinguishable from the molten core of a volcano for about half the year, and I knit year-round. (Hello, addiction.) I mostly knit with wool, but during the volcano months, I tend to lighten up the color palette when I’m knitting for myself, using yellows, pinks, whites/naturals, etc.
I live on the coast in southern New England and knit every day…even though I have other things that compete for my time (gardening, kayaking, biking, reading, skiing, etc.). We have central air, but I love to knit at the beach and opt for smaller projects…but always in wool…for the beach bag! I have multiple projects on the needles all year round – even wool sweaters in summer – because if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a few days! It’s always changing…and it’s never boring!
I lived for 5 years in a very hot climate (Perth, Western Australia where is regularly hits 40 C in summer…) and knit all year round. I tended to knit smaller items or with cotton, but I’m also a rather slow knitter so I find that if I start a winter garment in summer then its usually ready by the time it gets cold. I’ve moved now though to London and its so exciting to have most of the year cold enough for some sort of knitwear – Perth only had ‘winter’ for about 2 or 3 months a year.
Yes, I knit perpetually, but like others I tend to switch to shawls or socks in the summer. If my house was air conditioned I would probably still knit wool sweaters and the like, but I don’t! In the summer I find myself knitting in the mornings, on a cafe patio, and at night, at the bar.
I’m a year round knitter. I live in northeast Pennsylvania and the summers here have become quite hot over the past few years. I plan to start and finish an afghan before the end of May so it’s not on my lap come summer. When the heat wave starts I’ll be knitting socks watching the hummingbirds feed on my cosmos.
i can’t imagine a day without knitting!! I must admit, summers are a tough time to tackle a big wooly blanket that is at the ‘lap’ stage—-but we must make sacrifices sometimes and be a bit uncomfortable—or switch to something more portable. The joy of knitting—there are choices.
All year round. I often actually feel like I’m busiest with knitting in the summertime! I’ve had to be careful with which yarns I used in humid conditions; if I use a springier wool on a humid day, the humidity causes the yarn to tension less smoothly, therefore stretching it out more during the knitting process and creating a tighter final fabric. Dehumidifiers are my friends. :)
I knit all year, but after a few sweaty irritable weeks of finishing an afghan in August, or working with a particularly fine fuzzy yarn, I make conscious choices of what projects I work on in July and August. Nothing that sticks to my bare legs or drags through my fingers ( no angora, camel or super fuzzy lightly spun stuff.)
I knit all year, but my fiber choice changes. In the winter and cooler months I’m a diehard wool fan, in the summer it’s cotton/bamboo and more blends. I work for a knit shop so I am constantly finding new ‘toys’ to play with during any weather! Oh, and I’m so glad I found your site and your supply company; ordered the design book and a couple of the bone fix it tools….they are wonderful!
I, too, knit all year, but especially in the 6 weeks we call winter in Texas. In the spring and fall, the pottery wheel competes for my attention, since my studio is in my unheated garage. Lately all I’ve been interested in knitting are small pieces, so the fiber content doesn’t trouble me. But in general, I don’t much care for cotton unless it’s blended with wool. I need the forgiveness of wool to hide the occasional wonky stitch or irregular tension.
I definitely knit all year round! In fact, I may even knit more in the summer because in the past I’ve had my summers pretty much free. However, there is something so say about knitting in the winter. It almost feels like knitting in the winter is meant to be, and whenever I knit when it’s snowing I picture old knitting geniuses inventing the magic loop and fair isle patterns in a cabin somewhere in Europe and it just feels right. In the summer I tend to use more cotton yarn, and I knit/crochet more summery things: bikinis, tops, shorts, etc.. and in the winter I knit more sweaters, scarves, mittens, hats, etc.. After this loooong winter we’ve had here in the Midwest I’m looking forward to some summer knitting. I had a taste of this last week when I went to Panama! For details check out my latest blog post!
Hmmm…. now that the kids are older, I do more knitting year-round, although ( as others have mentioned) switching to cotton or linen in the summer. Japan is dreadfully humid in the summer– and no air con (unless I run away to the store;-)). No big woolprojectss– too hard to tension the yarn with sweaty hands. I can and do knit socks, though, as long as I have powder sheets along … love, love, love Biore Powder Sheets!!! Can you get those wipes in the US? Absolutely the best wipes EVER for getting the sticky/sweaty off! They leave your hands completely dry, smooth, and powdery/silky feeling. I always keep a pack in the knitting bag, and I always take them on the plane, because they’re also good for “washing” on trans-pacific flights since they have a nice light scent:-))
I knit year round now. I also live in a place where we get summer maybe for one month a year :) Northern Minnesota, small town called Ely by the canadian border. My husband and I are moving to New Mexico next year though. And I’m in a panic about what this will do to my knitting. What do you knit when its always warm?
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