"Haha, why do you knit in Hawaii?!"
I have had people - cold, complaining mainland people - pull on a hat I've made for them and say, "Wow, thanks! Haha, why do you knit in Hawaii?!" And then I snatch the hat back and beat them around the head with it.
Some folks really want to know, though. So for them, I may explain:
1) Library air conditioning is cold. Librarians wear cardigans.
2) People ask me to make them things.
3) Hawaii actually does have weather.
4) I DO WHAT I WANTS.
In the winter, cold rain sweeps in off the ocean, turning to snow up on the mountain. We have no heating in our homes, with window louvres that rattle in the wind and leak cold air in while we sleep under piles of heavy comforters. Hobos are not going to freeze to death, but everyone starts wearing hoodies and huddling under blankets and enjoying the excuse to covertly slip cold hands under each other's clothes. At high noon on most winter days, you can peel off your socks and sweatshirt and try to make a dash for the beach between cloud bursts, until the evening chill drives you back under the couch blanket. And while we huddle together watching a movie before bed, I knit. In the summers while the kids play outside, I sit in the shade with a cold beer and knit.
In Hawaii.
