I did some very productive knitting yesterday and the Sunday before — road tripping to and from my sister’s house in Florida. I was working from there all last week, but made a wildly unoriginal discovery on Wednesday afternoon. My niece’s school let out early that day, so I shut the lid on my laptop and the four of us (me, Bob, sister, niece) went to the beach for a bit. In between playing with Nina in the waves and the sand, I was camped out in a chair under a beach umbrella, knitting my Channel cardigan. At first I was wondering how it was possible that I’d never done that before — how I could not have known how brilliant it is to knit on a beach on a breezy-cool day with a pile of sweater flowing across the lap — and then I remembered: I’m not a beach person. I’m a shade worshipper, for one thing, and have never really known what to do with myself at a beach. I mean, I love to go to the beach, take a nice walk and a dozen photos. But to sit down and hang out? Well, now I know.