3KCBWDAY4: A knitter for all seasons

I think one of the best things about living in the UK is that we do quite often get proper seasons.  Sometimes, like this week, the weather can't decide whether it's winter, spring or summer, but it is a season.  I can't imagine living somewhere where it's hot and sunny all year round.  Nor can I imagine living somewhere it's regularly -30F in the winter and +90F in the summer with very little transition...  I love the colours of the seasons, and the way they change.  I'm not a great fan of winter but only because of the lack of light.  I'm sure if I weren't leaving home 3 hours before dawn and getting back 3 hours after dark, I'd enjoy that one too.

But a knitter for all seasons?  Nope, not me.

I knit in all seasons - I have the same rail journey to work all year round, and knit during it.  I tend to knit for myself in the first half of the year, and for others in the second half, because the small people I knit for have birthdays in the late summer and autumn, and I have family members who seem to appreciate knitted Christmas gifts.

It's been an incredibly long time since something in a Spring or Summer edition of any of the online magazines, or the print magazines, caught my eye.  I don't like sleeveless tops - big boobs and narrow shoulders mean the armholes need major engineering (of the Isambard Kingdom Brunel level of skill) to fit  - and so many of the summer offerings are made for little sylph-like things, or are shruggy things which really don't work on me.  I could knit diaphanous wafty things in the summer, but really, I'd just get them caught in a Tube door and do an Isadora Duncan.

I do have one cotton sweater.  It's made of Rowan Denim (24 balls of the stuff); it wears like iron, and it's warmer than a lot of my wool ones.  So that probably doesn't count as summer wear either...

I remember two idyllic summers at the ages of 14 and 16, knitting under shady trees in Provence with my penfriend's mother and aunt knitting and quilting beside me.  And I remember the projects - one was a big black 1980s boxy jumper in 4ply; and the other was a school tank-top in navy blue with little cables, also 4-ply.  (I learned early from Françoise and Monique that you got more knitting-hours for your money with fine yarns...)

Whatever the season outside, I seem to be perpetually a girl in winter.  Knitty's move to a Spring and Summer/First Fall/Deep Fall/Winter publishing schedule made total sense to me.  I love nothing more than knitting outside on a bright summer day - just don't expect me to be knitting something summery...