Finish one sweater, start thinking about the next one. First step: knit, block and measure a gauge swatch. I don’t much like keeping my gauge swatches – they take up space, and it’s unlikely that I’ll ever have any benefit from them – so I usually rip them up and reuse the yarn immediately.

The yarn looks unusable, and mostly is unusable. Crinkly and uneven. But then I put it in lukewarm water for ten minutes, gently massage it a bit, squeeze out the water – and it looks just like new. Like magic. Except now it smells like a wet sheep, which is less magical but also kind of wonderful.