Excitement is Starting a New Project!

I've been collecting up a group of yarns for a while now. A couple of years at least. I don't remember what got me started. Maybe just an excuse to buy yarns? I don't really think so, but wouldn't dare to say that I completely understand the mysterious workings of my own mind. :) The group certainly isn't in colours that I usually wear so it's hard to imagine how I got started.

This is the collection I pulled out last night:

I'll be using them from left to right. Some will be held together to make weight and to blend the colours. The bright yellow and green are Malabrigo that I had and threw in with the rest recently. Same with the yellow in the bag--that's some yarn I got at Squam.

Somehow I got the idea to make something from multiple yarns in different weights and types. Just mix it up in wide stripes of all these different yarns. The shape would have to be simple. I thought about a big rectangle folded in half with a neckhole and straight side seams. One thing holding me back was making a decision about what to actually do with it and the other was the thought of designing something--extra work and extra risk.

Then I saw this pattern:

It's another design by Stephen West who also designed the Mesa I did earlier this year. When I saw it, I right away thought of this yarn I have. I've been debating since the spring because I wasn't sure that I needed a big bulky turtleneck, but now that cooler weather is here it's not hard to imagine wearing it!!

I started swatching last night:

I really like the mix of colours--I'm knitting with all three of these yarns (two strands of the green lace). The resulting colour is nicer than any one of them.

That went so well (and quickly) that I cast on the sweater! Between last night and today I got the turtleneck done and have started the yoke increases, and the second colour. I'm using that little bit of my first handspun that I did during the Olympics.

This project has me just a little bit obsessed!