Changes

In all the craziness that is our lives right now, I occasionally have a coherent thought (when I'm not dressing my son in my clothes) about knitting. When I knit, I knit clothing - sweaters, socks, shawls, that kind of stuff. I'm not really a household knitting kind of person (not that household knitting is bad, my all time favorite dishcloths are handknit garter stitch that I got 15 years ago as part of a wedding gift).

The funny thing about clothing is that it has to be appropriate to wear in the location you're wearing it. Now Virginia and Texas have very different climates. Both have hot, humid summers (Virginia's summers are typically very similar to Texas summers, believe it or not). But Texas likes to have summer for about 10 months of the year (then it has a tiny winter time when everyone freezes to death). In Virginia, there are actually 4 seasons (for those of you in Texas that are wondering, there is also Spring and Fall). We have really enjoyed having 4 seasons here in Virginia. This variety of seasons makes for lots of fun knitting. Obviously, if I continue knitting the kinds and weights of things in Texas that I do here, I will have to have several wardrobe changes a day during the brief cold spell that Texas gets around January and February in order to wear everything I knit for cold weather. This seems like a lot of trouble to me, so I think my best option is to change my knitting style a bit.

There are a couple of things that will work in my favor:

1. I am almost always cold.
2. Very hot outside places tend to be over-airconditioned inside and you can easily get hypothermia while eating dinner in a restaurant.

The majority of my knitting that is worsted weight or heavier has been cardigans which do provide for air flow so I think I'll still get plenty of wear out of them. My lace shawls and stoles will be perfect to wrap around my shoulders in the subarctic indoors of the South, but will easily go into a bag when I go outside. Socks are needed wherever you live, just because.

I could always start knitting lots of things in cotton, but I don't like the way it feels to knit cotton. I've heard great things about Rowan's Calmer but the microfiber used with the cotton (which is what gives it the elasticity) is acrylic. I'm allergic to acrylic. Fortunately, I think I've figured out something of a plan (at least as much of a knitting plan as someone with moving brain can come up with, but hey, for me a knitting plan is a business plan - I write knitting patterns for a job!) I really enjoyed knitting with Shelridge Farm's Wool Cotton Yarn and I've knit with Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece and enjoyed it before. I also love knitting with 100% wool and since wool does breath well, I see no reason to quit, but I think I'll be happier knitting it at a finer gauge. After all, when I buy a sweater (yes, I do sometimes) it's always a fine gauge sweater, so why not knit one? Add to that the fact that I tend to spin fine yarns, I think this will be easier than I thought. And if Texas decides to have a really cold winter one year? I'm ready for it baby!