an exciting start

I spent far too many of the wee hours on Sunday getting this project started. To be fair, I had Monday off so there were very few repercussions aside from a circadian rhythm blip and one less night of solid sleep. But! I cast on my Coloring Book Raglan. I have wanted to make one of these since I saw a favorite YouTuber talk about it this fall - the boxy look plus stripes was quite appealing to my current sense of style. I showed adult restraint, though, and finished up a few things (including a new project bag for it) before caking up the yarn. 

This will be my first time working on a top down sweater (just my fifth sweater) and I am looking forward to seeing if I prefer it to bottom up. I expect the bonus of being able to try on as you go is pretty significant given my dive in and ask questions about gauge later habits. The fit also looks like it would be very forgiving in the I-don't-like-to-swatch department.

I'm using a yarn I discovered (but did not purchase) on Bay Area Yarn Crawl last year. I can remember seeing a black version, which was gorgeous, picking it up and thinking "ooh that's really soft wool. I bet I could wear a sweater out of that". This shade of dusty robin's egg blue is just beautiful and I love working with the yarn so far. I'm about halfway through the raglan increases at this point, and then it's smooth sailing down the body. I'll be combining it with some alpaca for the stripes. I'm really looking forward to seeing if that works out.