Once upon a time, I could bang out a sweater in a matter of weeks. Or even days – I was shocked to discover that five years ago, I knit my Owls sweater in nine days! Now it seems to take me months to finish a single pullover. Of course, I suppose that’s what I get for choosing to knit a colorwork sweater out of sock yarn.

This summer, I became completely obsessed with a pattern based on a single blog post. Check out this amazing sweater on February Twelve. But be warned – you might fall in love with it, too, and decide you have to knit one. Right. This. Minute.

That’s what happened to me. Her version completely captivated me and I knew I couldn’t rest till I cast on. So I gathered up a mighty collection of stash yarn, and went to work. I got a few inches in and realized it was coming out bigger than expected and I was knitting it with the variegated yarn dominant rather than the solid, which is what I meant. So I ripped it out and started again, while in Georgia on vacation, towards the end of July.

The pattern, Reis by Stephen West, is a really fun approach to colorwork. It involves slipping stitches (i.e., no carrying multiple colors on one round) for the body and then switches to very modest strandwork in the yoke.

But y’all. It is taking me FOREVER.

It started out fine. Three weeks in, I was mostly done with the body:

I really expected/hoped to be done by the beginning of September, when I had planned to begin a different fall sweater. By Labor Day, though, I had only partly completed one arm:

Then some other things took my focus (namely, my Crackerjack, plus a pile of spinning).

And now I am here:

Autumn Reis

Just because it looks close to done doesn’t mean it’s close to done. Because I think this yoke is going to take me forever:

Reis yoke

I am trying to forget all my other knitting plans for now and just focus on getting this done and enjoying the process. Because it has been a beautiful process. It is mostly Plucky Knitter yarn, which is just a joy to knit. And the colors are perfectly in sync with autumn and with my love for autumn. Perhaps I will even finish it in time to wear it before autumn is done?

raveled