Here it is, almost the end of September, and it is just beginning to feel like fall. The mornings are getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and all of a sudden there are signs of color creeping in amidst the green leaves of summer. Our farmer’s market was full of pumpkins, squashes and apple cider this week; for the first time I’m starting to realize that fall really is here.

Fall is also progressing very quickly on my needles. Despite the tiny needle size, the fall colors sweater is making very rapid progress. I’m past the waist shaping now, and am about 2-3 inches from the underarm split, depending on how I measure the waistline placement.

I don’t think I showed the back last time; I had just started the pattern band, and it wasn’t far enough along to show well in pictures. It shows up now, though:

I decided that I didn’t want a strong, bright band right across my back hip line, and so opted to move the accent pattern up a few inches, so that it falls at the narrowest part of the waistline instead. I think it will look a lot more flattering there, and it made for a nice change of pace in the body knitting. And again, I love where it fell in the color pattern; that bright red-orange band really pops right after the darker section below.

I’m thinking that I will probably transfer the sweater to a second needle and try it on, despite the fact that it’s a few inches too small (the side steek bands aren’t as wide as the final side gussets, so it won’t be the right size until after I’ve done the steeks). It will have a lot more negative ease than planned, but putting it on will give me a better sense of where the waist band and final hem placement should be.

Branden also asked a very good question about the neckline tonight…i.e. what I was planning to do about it. I’ve had a picture in my head all along, but his question made me start trying to square that picture up with reality. The more I think about it, the less I think it will work without some fancy footwork, which is made all the riskier by the fact that I was planning to use a steek on the neckline, too.

I need to think a bit more about the neckline design, to be sure, but it’ll be a little while yet before I get there. Still, I’m really happy with how quickly this seems to be moving along!