Sorry for the radio silence, but there hasn’t been much going on around here, knitting-wise. Going back to grad school in a new field while working part time has pretty much eaten up all of my energy this month, and Branden and I have been focusing hard on spending what little time is left doing things together. He’s having a really busy fall, too, as his startup pushes closer and closer to the do-or-die moment, and when we’re both this busy it’s extra important to find time to actually see one another in between.

With one thing and another, I have pretty much only knit at knit night (and have only made it to knit night about one week in 3), and on the occasional bus ride to school. I think if I tallied up the hours of knitting this month it would come out to less than 10, and possibly less than 5.

The second welted garter shawl is inching along (sorry for the terrible photos, but perfectionism right now leads very quickly to no blog, so here’s what I got in my dark office this afternoon). At about 30-40 minutes a row, this project is feeling longer and longer all the time. With no knitting time, the yarn balls are feeling infinite, but I’m pretty sure it’s getting close. Another stripe or two, and I should be into the garter stitch border and then done.

Which, of course, means that it’s time to start thinking about another project, because the end of projects always sneak up on me unawares when life is busy like this. To that end, I started a swatch.

Does it look more impressive if I tell you that this is the second time I knit it? Thought not. You know you’re scraping bottom when an inch and a half of swatch is worth a blog mention, but it did take me about 3 weeks to get this much done…

While not knitting, I have been very much enjoying the colors of fall. This year has been a pretty spectacular display; it came late and has just stretched on and on. I think we’ve had color for over a month now, starting with the maples, which lit the world on fire.

They are mostly faded out now, and we’re into the rusty reds and oranges of the oaks and the bright yellow of the birch trees. The green pines are really beginning to stand out from the crowd, and I just love the grays and beige that show up as the grasses die back and the bare branches start to show.

What a difference two weeks makes, huh? We’ve gone from fiery October into the depths of a New England fall. Suddenly it seems real that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Sometimes the change to deep fall happens almost overnight; this year, it’s been more protracted. It’s my favorite time of year, so I’ve been enjoying the long, sweet fade into gray.

The weather is getting colder and The Tired has come out of nowhere to hit me full-force this week and last, so I think our days of wandering in parks and going out and doing might be fading out with the season. Quieter weekends at home should be good for more knitting time, at least. Hopefully I’ll be back soon, with lots of knitting to show!