It’s fun to craft at any time of year. However, many people find it uncomfortable to work with yarn during the hottest months of summer. High temperatures don’t mean that you need to put your yarn down, though. These 17 summer craft tips will help improve your knitting and crochet joy despite the warmer weather.
1. Select Summer Yarns
The most important of all the summer craft tips is to choose your fiber carefully. Wool is a winter yarn; cotton is a summer yarn. Other summer yarns include linen, hemp, bamboo, and silk.
Likewise, bulky yarns are usually better in winter (with some exceptions). In contrast, it feels cooler to work with thread, lightweight yarn or DK weight yarn during the summer. See our recommended yarns for each yarn weight here.
2. Look for Small, Quick Projects
You probably don’t want to have a big heavy blanket growing on your lap as you craft this summer. Therefore, you’ll want to look for small, quick projects. Knit or crochet dishcloths, amigurumi, pillow covers, scrubbies, and thin scarves.
3. Or Work With Motifs
If you do have a large project that you want to complete, then try to do so in pieces. In other words, one of our top summer craft tips is to look for motif-based projects. Choose projects that you can work in small bits and batches. Perhaps you might wait until the weather is cooler to stitch them all together at the end.
4. Learn A New Craft
Sometimes all that it takes to get over the “it’s too hot to craft” hump is to get so excited about your project that you don’t care about the heat. Therefore, you might want to take the opportunity to learn a new craft this summer. You’ll be so busy enjoying tackling those new skills that you won’t worry about the heat.
5. Or Learn A New Technique
You don’t have to try an entirely new craft in order to get excited about your work again. Learn a new knitting or crochet technique to boost the joy of summer crafting.
Bonus tip: take a class. Meeting people in an air-conditioned classroom while learning new crafting skills is a great way to enjoy the summer.
6. Set Up Your Space for Cool Crafting
The better your set-up, the more you’ll enjoy crafting. In summertime, this might mean setting up a fan or air conditioner in your craft space. Alternatively, you might move your craft chair away from windows with direct sunlight. Or simply pull the drapes and set up great indoor lighting.
7. Knit and Crochet in the Wee Hours
Do your crafting first thing in the morning. Alternatively, take out your knitting needles or crochet hooks after the sun has gone down. You can enjoy some wonderful summer crafting in those cooler hours of the day.
8. Make Things You Can Wear Immediately
This is another of our favorite summer craft tips. Craft summer wearables and accessories that you can enjoy using as soon as you’ve finished making them. For example, check out our 50 Free Summer Crochet Tops Patterns or 20 Free Knit Summer Tops Patterns. And to match, check out our roundup of the best crochet shorts patterns.
9. Make Projects With Kids
Kids can begin to learn knitting and crochet from a very early age. Therefore, these are great crafts to keep the whole family busy together in the summer. Come up with a project that you can work on together. This will add to the fun of the experience for everyone. Plus, you’ll save time and money trying to come up with family activities every day.
10. Do Crafts With Yarn Ends
Do you save your yarn ends? You know, the ones you snip off at the end of a project or the tiny bits leftover when you’ve won the yarn chicken game? If not, then you should start. And once you do, you’ll find that there are a lot of creative ways to use yarn ends. These projects are low-heat and fun for summer.
11. Take Yarn Traveling
You can take yarn project traveling with you on the road or in a plane. While there are a few exceptions about knitting needles on international flights, most plane travel allows both hooks and needles with no problems. This is a great way to pass the time on your summer travels. And don’t forget to take Flat Marly with you for a chance to win some prizes!
12. Join the BiCrafty Games
Celebrate the 2021 Summer Olympics with your fellow crafters. The BiCrafty Games are a knit and crochet mystery make-along. Learn all about it here.
13. Reconsider Your Hooks and Needles
If you love metal crochet hooks and knitting needles, then you’re definitely not alone. However, these sometimes get hot and sweaty during summer crafting. Consider switching over to bamboo for the summer months. Your hands will thank you.
14. Prep Project Bags
The summer can get really busy. Make crafting easier on yourself by getting your project bags ready in advance. Each bag should include the pattern, the yarn, the needles or hooks and any other additional notions necessary to complete that project. Place these in easy-to-grab places so that you can work on them when you’re ready. Then get the rest of your yarn out of the way this summer.
15. Set Up a Craft Table
Many of us work with our knitting and crochet in our laps. That’s normally fine. However, if you find that too hot during the summer months, then the solution is simple: set up a craft table. If you put your work on the table instead of your lap, you instantly cool off. This is one of those obvious-but-oft-forgotten craft tips.
Bonus tip: A portable laptop table is a great solution for on the go summer crafting.
16. Try Openwork Knit and Crochet Designs
These allow the breeze to come through as you craft. Moreover, they’re comfortable to wear / use during the warmer months of the year. If you haven’t done a lot of big open lacework in the past, then this summer could be a great time to give it a try.
17. Check Out Summer Craft Magazines
There are a lot of great craft magazines out there from both past and present. Plus there are tons of great knitting books and crochet books. Look for the ones that emphasize summer projects. They’re filled with summer craft tips that will help you enjoy yourself more this season.
What are your favorite summer craft tips? What’s your biggest gripe about summer crafting and what’s your biggest joy?
You Might Also Like:
- 35 Summer Crochet Blanket Patterns
- 44 Free Crochet and Knit Beach Projects
- 23 Free Knit Summer Shawls
- Crochet Water Balloons: Eco-Friendly, Easy, Stashbusting Summer Fun
[…] the colorwork for you to create the beautiful effect of this vest pattern. We implemented a lot of summer craft tips to make this a great project to knit now and wear over the next few months. This knit vest is […]