Now I have to apologize to all those on Ravelry over the years who mentioned the heat and it being too hot to knit.

My knitting was limited in Kuwait, not because of the temperature but because of the dirt. With dust and sand infiltrating everything both my hands and the yarn all turned an icky tan within an hour. Since knitting inside a plastic bag didn’t work I pretty much put it aside.

The same thing happened in Afghanistan – I had taken six skeins of sock yarn along as well as making up prepacks for one of the kids to toss in the mail. Even so, I quickly found that walking to the other end of the billeting area to wash my hands just wasn’t good enough. Baby wipes can leave your hands sticky which doesn’t seem to matter for books but certainly did for light colored or fragile yarns

Now here I am in Phoenix where everyone lives inside air conditioning. I could knit – there is nothing stopping me physically. But psychologically? I only have fine wools with me and they feel sticky and hot. My Hanne Falkenberg is tucked safely away in the suitcase. The shawl is crawling toward the end of the first ball.

Books are goo – eBooks are even better. Yes, I know I should go back to audio and knit. But (whine)….. I know – I will play computer games!