Has it really been 2 weeks since I posted? I’ve been knitting away on Branden’s Basketweave sweater, lost in that endless middle section where there is no apparent progress to explain where the hours go. It has been slowly growing, though – helped along by a rather extended bout of inexplicable insomnia – and all of a sudden it’s starting to look like a sweater.

I’m not 100% happy with how the color is pooling. I ordered all 4 skeins at the same time because the yarn is batch dyed to order and I wanted to make sure that I ended up with only one colorway, but one of the skeins is significantly lighter than the other 3. I hoped it wouldn’t show, but with the sweater laid out it’s clear that there’s a difference. I’ve been working 2 balls together to try and even out the lighter skein, but the color is still not looking even across the whole garment. We’ll see how much it bothers me in the finished product. If it’s jarring enough, I may go back and overdye to reduce the contrast. I’d rather not have to, since that will probably also eliminate the subtle shade variegation in the yarn, but we’ll see how it looks. Good to have overdyeing in my back pocket, at least.

Deep in the middle of the sweater slog band, there was a day where I just couldn’t knit on a never-changing object anymore. And so, I cast on for a sweater that I knew I could finish in a day.

(Sorry for the terrible lighting, on both photos…it was a beautiful day and I was home for all of it, and yet it didn’t occur to me to take photos until well after dark, so poor lighting is what we get.)

It always surprises me how long small knitting projects do take, but this was fun nonetheless, and it used up a tiny little ball of leftover sock yarn that I had kicking around in the stash. I cast on 5 stitches for the front and back, and 2 for each arm section, and whipped up a simple little raglan in a matter of a few hours (I think I put 8 stitches on holder needles for the arms, and then picked up another 2 or 3).

I’m not usually into fiddly little projects, but this one was just right. It took the edge off of my need for progress, inserted a little color into a lot of black knitting, and the finished sweater is very cute indeed. I think I may have been subconsciously influenced to try some miniature knitting by the Yarn Harlot’s recent adventures with an advent calendar. There is no way I’m going down that crazy path, but it did seem like it would be fun to have a tiny little sweater to hang on the Christmas tree (which we put up today…is it really December already??).

It was fun to have a tiny project, just for a day. Here’s a photo to give you a sense of scale:

Off to knit a few more repeats on the body. Only about 6 more inches to go!

Branden’s sweater looks about the same this week as it did last. I’ve knit another 6 inches, but it’s in the bunched-up stage of a raglan sweater where you can’t really tell that anything is happening and the rows just keep getting longer. The increase section is up to 11 inches now (of the 14 that I need in the end), so I should be to the sleeve split soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been planning for spring.

We’ve had our first snow flurries of the season (about a quarter inch, last weekend), and overnight temperatures are getting into the low 30’s. Most of the garden is dying back, which means that it’s the perfect time to plant bulbs for spring. That’s one of the things I love most about gardening – at the end of one season, you can always start preparing for the next.

They say this winter is supposed to be a long and cold one, so it felt like an act of quiet rebellion to go out and tuck 150 little bulbs snugly into the cold soil. Most bulbs need to spend some time in the cold or they won’t come up at all, so it’s good to plant them when the soil temperature has dropped but before frosts make it hard to work the soil. Some of the bulbs even have a tiny white bump beginning; a sprout set already, patiently awaiting spring. I didn’t realize that they set their spring growth so early; no wonder they’re ready to go the moment that the snow gives way!

There’s something encouraging in the determined optimism of a plant setting its spring growth before winter even begins. It’s kind of a vote of confidence that it will make it through the cold and darkness to come. My hydrangea has all its spring buds already, and when I transplanted the Solomon’s seal and bleeding hearts a few weeks ago they also had tiny white leaves already starting to form.

Of course, less than an hour after I’d finished planting the bulbs, there were already several holes in the garden bed courtesy of the local squirrel. (I’m sure he was watching from his tree the whole time, just waiting for me to go inside.) He got a couple of bulbs before we put the chicken wire out, but hopefully that will keep him at bay long enough for the ground to settle and for him to forget that they’re there. I have to say that I have a lot less sympathy for the summer-fattened squirrel than I did for the bunny who nibbled the first of my greens this year!

Of course, knowing squirrels, there’s a good chance that he’ll plant the bulbs he steals somewhere else and forget about them, so maybe we’ll have some fun surprises come spring.

There are a few tulips to plant and a couple more plants to move, but other than that, things are mostly tucked up and ready for the winter. It’s nice to know that everything is set for an early spring celebration…provided that the squirrel keeps his little paws out of my flower beds!

I haven’t been feeling much like thinking at the end of the day lately, so it’s been nice to have a mindless spinning project to work on when I get home from work.

It’s also nice to have a pile of finished yarn.

I forgot to measure the total weight before washing to set the twist, but the final length is just over 3200 yds. The yarn is a fingering weight 2-ply, and will make a beautiful colorwork sweater one of these days.

This is something of an unusual spinning project for me. Normally, I only spin up the fiber when I’m actually ready to start knitting. This time, I knew what yarn weight I wanted, so I just went ahead and spun it up without a project in mind. I’m expecting that it will go back into the stash to marinate for a while longer before I knit the actual garment, but it’s nice to have it ready to go as soon as I get around to the design. (It’s also helpful to know how much length I have in each color when planning a colorwork design).

When not spinning away at the Shetland, I’ve been knitting on Branden’s new Basketweave sweater:

It’s currently too big to stretch out on the needles, but since it’s a raglan you can get a pretty good idea of the overall design just by looking at the increase sections. I put a tiny cable along the increases, and am working the basketweave as an allover pattern in between. The fabric did flatten out a little bit with blocking, but it has a nice drape at this gauge. I decided not to go down a needle size because I’m not sure I have that much extra yardage, and because we didn’t want the final fabric to be too stiff. This sweater is about 6 sts/in on size 3’s, so it’s moving along pretty quickly, and I’m really enjoying the texture and the squishiness of the yarn.