I love to sit outside this time of year and knit. The air is cool and things are starting to bloom in the garden. I recall the feeling of summer and the smell of tomatoes on the vine, knowing that all too soon spring will be gone and summer will be here and then I will be trying to recall the cool days of spring.

Anyway, I was sitting and knitting and thinking, as they always go hand in hand, and I thought about all the things that knitting and gardens have in common.

Your knitting grows stitch by stitch, and a garden is grown plant by plant from one seed at a time. The seeds become plants and they join to become the fabric of a beautiful garden. All the knitting stitches combine to become a beautiful piece of fabric. There are beautiful colors in yarns and in flowers, and there is no color in yarn that isn’t available and abundant in nature. The texture of the plants creates magic, as do the textured knitted stitches and yarn combined in a garment.

A compost pile could be compared to a knitter’s stash. They are both waiting for their time to come again. The compost pile will release wonderful new soil back to the earth, and the knitter’s stash is waiting for a fertile idea for a project to hit the owner of the stash and return it to the world in a knitted piece. You can’t rush either one; when the time is right, they happen.

There are also knitter’s tools that can be used in the garden. Old knitting needles make good plant stakes for seedlings. They are also great to make small holes in the soil to plant seeds in. Need something soft to tie with when staking a plant so you don’t harm the plant Use yarn. Natural fibers are soft and will also bio-degrade back into the soil when next winter comes along. Hang some bright yarn scraps in your trees and let the birds use them for nesting material.

That brown tissue paper wrap that comes from a certain knitting store is great shredded and added to your compost pile, as it is recycled and contains no dyes or bleach. Those great white paper bags that also come from that great knitting store —or for that matter any cute paper bags — can be set aside, and when your tomatoes and vegetables come in, you can use them to harvest your crop. How nice to give a friend a bag of freshly harvested vegetables and herbs topped off with a hand-knit dish cloth. Money alone can’t buy a gift like that, as they are both from your hands and heart.

Feed your body, feed your soul and happy knitting!

Kathy Kindred owns K2Knits in Tracy. If you have a knitting question or want information in a future column, e-mail her at k2kindred@msn.com.