On the road again...

I am in the process of devising an Aran sweater. (With many hours of passenger side traveling ahead of me, I need something to think about.)
Below are the swatches:

Aran sweater swatch.

This is (ostensibly) for the Boy-O, though I think I'm getting just as much out of designing it as he will from wearing.
Here's a close-up of the sts:

Close-up of the fab Donegal Tweed.

I made individual swatches of the patterns so that I could re-arrange them at will - these are just pinned together. I think it's a pretty good combo and my Boy-O agrees.
Because this yarn is so tweedy/busy/hairy, I think I will have to go down a needle size to get more stitch definition (this request is straight from the horse's mouth, BTW. Since he's been creating sketches for me, the Boy has expressed many fashion opinions I did not know he had. Who knew I had my own little Armani in the house?).
But I like the "walk across the misty moors" feeling this yarn has.
[I have no idea if this color even has a name - it's a moody sort of grey with neps of natural, brown and black.]

Besides, if this works out, I might want to make a sweater for myself.
Then we'll be that insufferably cute couple everyone hates. ;-D