Long Term Knitting Project - Drops Yoked Sweater

With the doldrums of winter, I had started feeling kind of blah.  But there's nothing that perks a knitter up like a new knitting project :)

pattern: http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=4098&lang=us

I've had this Drops sweater pattern sitting in my queue on Ravelry for quite a while.  I love sweaters with circular yokes and this particular pattern has such a lovely textured stitch pattern around the neck.

pattern:  http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=4944&lang=us

I've made Drops patterns before - I made a similar sweater for my mother-in-law a few years ago, also with a very pretty yoked neckline.  I like elements of both patterns, so I'm going to incorporate a little bit of each in my sweater.  I'm mainly going to follow the first pattern, but I'm changing the bottom band to ribbing as in the bottom (pink) sweater.  I'm also going to make the sleeves full length, as in the bottom pattern.

I have some lovely hand-dyed variegated yarn that I'm going to add in for the textured stitches of the yoke, but I'm keeping that as a surprise for now :)

I'm excited about this new sweater, but it's going to be a long-term project for me, since I have other projects (and new patterns!) that I'm working on.  I plan to post updates to this sweater as I go along.