Thoughts about starting...

Hi, I'm glad to be here and have my yarn on hand. I am planning to use Rowan All Season cotton for the solid color and I found some cotton/acrylic variagated yarn to go along with it. I have seen all the comments about the start of the circle and had thoughts about trying to start with a small crochet circle (like the ones used for arigurumi) and then pick up and knit . Any thoughts about this? I am also thinking about switching the solid and variagated colors...I wonder what that will do to the look.