The autumn make list

Late September: the sweater

If you want to wear a sweater you made this winter, cast on in the last week of September. A DK sweater in a middle size is 1300 to 1500 meters, which at a relaxed pace of an hour a night is six to eight weeks. Start with the swatch, wash it, and do not skip that step this year. The Harbor Raglan Sweater is a good candidate because it is tried on as you go: by mid October you will know it fits, and the body and sleeves are plain rounds you can work while watching something.

October: the blanket, started

A throw takes longer than a sweater and needs no fitting, so it can be started second and finished last. A throw size of the Meadow Stripe Blanket is 2500 yards, which is a winter of evenings if it is the only project and an autumn of weekends if it is one of several. Choose the stripe colors now while the shops have full stock, buy the whole amount at once, and keep it in a bag by the sofa. It is the project for the nights when you are too tired to count.

Early November: gifts that take an evening

This is when the gift list becomes real. The rule is one evening per gift, so the whole list fits in the weeks that are left. Hats are the obvious choice: the free Ridgeline Beanie is 100 to 140 yards of bulky and takes two hours, and a person can wear five of them in different colors without anyone noticing they are the same hat. Make a list of heads, buy bulky yarn in as many colors as there are heads, and work one per evening.

• Ridgeline Beanie: one evening each, four sizes, any bulky yarn
• Hearth Nesting Baskets: a weekend for the set, and it wraps well
• Market Day Tote: two evenings, and it can be the gift wrap for something else
• Pip the Pocket Bunny: one evening, and safe for the smallest hands

Mid November: the one special gift

There is usually one person on the list who gets something more, and it needs to be started by the middle of November to be finished without stress. A baby cardigan is the classic: the Little Acorn Cardigan in the 12 month size is 310 yards and a week of evenings, and it is the kind of gift that gets kept. A shawl is the other: the Tidewater Shawl is one skein of fingering, two weeks of evenings, and a blocking day at the end, so the last stitch needs to be done a week before the gift is due.

December: finish, block, wrap

Nothing new starts in December. The first two weeks are for finishing the special gift and the last of the hats. Everything wool gets blocked at once on the same weekend, since the mats are out anyway. Ends are woven in as each piece is finished, not saved. Then wrap them with the yarn label and a line about how to wash it, because the person receiving a hand-made thing wants to keep it and does not know how.

January: the blanket

The blanket is finished in January, when nothing is due and the evenings are longest. That is why it was started in October and never rushed: it is the reward for the season, not another deadline. By the time the border is on, the days are getting longer and it is time to think about cotton.

Adjust the list to your own calendar, of course. The principle holds whatever the dates: slow things first, quick things when time is short, blocking on one day, and nothing new in the last two weeks.