my vicarious obsession returns

When I first started my current day job, it was after teaching and then taking the summer off to move and get my new house set up, so I suddenly found myself with way more money and way, way less time when I started work again. During that last summer off, I spent a lot of time crocheting and designing with yarn--it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that yarn was all that kept me sane that summer, or preserved what little sanity got preserved, or ... whatever. You get the picture. Anyway, when I started work after that, I found myself buying tons of yarn, and after a month or two, I realized why: it felt like I was still getting some time with the yarn, even though basically all I did was fawn over it on the Internet, buy it, and then hang it on the guest room wall. Well, despite the fact that I spend practically every waking hour that I'm not at work dyeing yarn, I think I'm starting to do that again.
Remember the yarn I bought for the Noro scarf? I haven't touched that. It's sitting in my kitchen. But that hasn't stopped me from buying this

for another Noro scarf, and this

for a cowl of some sort. It's Cash Island, from the mega sale at Webs. At 60% wool, 30% cashmere, and 10% nylon, it is soft and luscious and totally a steal at $6.49 a hank. I had four different colorways in mind for two striped scarves, but they sold out of the one I liked best before I could get any, thus the cowl in the second picture. (They substituted two more skeins of colorway 17 for me, so I should have enough. Uh oh, did I just jinx myself?)
I'm still totally into bright, saturated colors, but after seeing some people's gorgeous Noro scarves in subtle colors, I'm totally psyched for the pairing in the top picture. Now I just need to find time to actually make it!