The Excitement of New Beginnings

It's the first day of autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere (though it sure doesn't feel like it right now), and it seems particularly fitting that I should finish up the final sample in my pattern collection tonight. I'd set myself a goal of knitting all eight over the summer, so one day late seems perfectly acceptable. I'll do a proper FO post once the cowl is finished and blocked; for now, I'm excited by the possibility of casting on new projects.

Obviously I will soon be casting on for Rainbow's new school sweater (another Gramps Cardigan, this time in the largest size) with the Berroco Vintage we picked up at my LYS before they closed. I've just got to wind it and highlight the right numbers in the pattern before casting on. I've knit this pattern twice before, so I'm not swatching because I know what needle sizes I used to get gauge the last two times (not to mention that I'm making a large enough size that if the fit is a little off, it shouldn't be a big deal).

What I'm more excited about is the next design project. A couple of weeks ago, Ginny of FatCatKnits sent me this skein of sock yarn to design with. The colorway is a limited edition called Freestyle, and it's a beauty:

The challenge with this yarn, obviously, is to find a way to work with the highly variegated colorway in such a way that the colors and the stitch pattern don't compete with each other. I've got a idea for a stitch pattern that I'm hoping will work, and I'm anxious to wind the yarn and cast on to see if it works as I've envisioned.

The weekend should be a good time to get a fair amount of knitting done. We're participating in a block garage/yard sale on Saturday, so I'll likely be sitting around for several hours, and then on Sunday the Mister and I are both running in a local 5K, which means I'll need the afternoon to rest and recover (but of course my hands will be fine to knit).