July 2026

July was kind of a weird month. I expected it to be super hot and, thus, decided to knit socks. I know socks may not look like the most obvious project for hot weather, but, where I live, Summer months are so hot that knitting anything that touches my lap is out of the question. Even 'summer yarns', like cotton and linen, feel like a furnace over my clothes. This means that only projects that are small enough to hang on the needles, like hats, mittens and socks, are appropriate. On the other hand, for someone who was used to live in a cold climate, the weather where I'm currently living is simply not cold enough, even on the coldest days, to bother with hats, mittens or even scarves (I'm quite aware that my neighbours absolutely disagree with this statement!). That leaves socks, which I do love wearing and wear every day that is humanly possibly. All this to say that, no matter how weird this may sound, socks are my preferred project for the hottest months.

So, I started knitting socks and to my surprise the weather just got cooler and cooler while I knitted. Meanwhile, I was comfortably wearing both my June tops, even though they were knitted in DK yarn and thus I really didn't expect to be able to wear them until the beginning of Autumn. So, there I was, knitting socks and wishing that I was knitting a Summer top, simply because it's so much nicer to knit something you'll be able to wear as soon as you're finished. And all along I was telling myself: don't be fooled, as soon as you cast on for a sweater, the weather is going to change and we'll have the worst heatwave in history. So, I continued knitting my socks and the weather continued to be lovely, just warm enough, but never uncomfortably hot.

After I finished knitting the two pairs of socks that you see in the photos above, I got a bit hesitant about what to knit next. I ended up finishing my "long-term project", a shawl, which I'd started in May. Let me explain... Over the years (it has been almost 12 since I started knitting), I've slowly changed from a large-number-of-projects-on-rotation kind of knitter and turned to an almost monogamous knitter. Almost, because I like to keep a super easy project on my needles at all times. This is my long-term project and its purpose is to have it available when I'm not able to knit on my main project for any reason. Common reasons are: (1) I've finished a project and am not ready to cast on immediately and (2) it's late in the evening, I had a very long day and am way too tired to: pick up and knit stitches, follow some complicated colourwork chart, etc.

With my one-skein shawl out of the needles only 3 days before the beginning of August, I needed a new long-term project and decided to start a raglan sweater. Not my usual kind of long-term, because I like knitting sweaters too much to knit them long-term, but I don't care if, like the shawl, this ends up being more of an average-term one.

Project data

Two pairs of socks
Pattern: both self-drafted (the first uses simple cables, the second, skyp stitches).
Yarn: Rosários 4 Meia (main colour: 110, contrast: 13).
Needles: 2.25mm (US1).

Shawl (no photo yet, sorry!)
Dates: May to July.
Pattern: self-drafted (standard top-down triangular shawl with a slipped-stitch texture).
Yarn: Rosa Pomar Mondim (colour C579).
Needles: 4mm (US6).

Long-term sweater (collar only for now!)
Pattern: self-drafted (raglan with simple colourwork stripes).
Yarn: Rosa Pomar Brusca (main colour: C) and Vovó (contrast colour: 29).
Main needles: 4mm (US6).