Cast On Fever

It happens this way sometimes, when I finish a project (the Averill vest, see previous post). On Saturday afternoon I stopped by the newsagent for some printer paper and came across the magazine Yarnwise, which despite being on its 57th issue I don't remember ever seeing before. I immediately saw 2 projects in it I wanted to cast on - the Portnoo Poncho, for wrapping up when watching tv in the evenings, or reading in bed, and the Darlington Cowl.

Here is the Portnoo Poncho swatch - I am trying to use my many, many single skeins from my many yarn store visits in the USA but I am not sure the lighter shade works here:

I may try a little more of this, or I may replace the lighter shade with a tweedy grey... I don't usually swatch per se (very bad I know!) but I start projects and sometimes restart differently if I don't like how they're going.  It is swatching of a sort.

I frogged a project (the Vicky Howell shrug, which always annoyingly slipped off my shoulders) on Sunday to start the Darlington Cowl during this week;

I am ashamed to say I haven't got too much further than this during the week!  It is a good travel sized project, and now I am into the moss stitch (strangely had a lot of trouble with a very simple run of decrease and increase rows; might have been tiredness I guess) it is rather mindless and good for tv knitting.
I did a little spinning last weekend too, so another 2 skeins lie waiting to be knitted up into the Rocky Coast Cardigan.