Mmmm fleece

I am so in love with my fleece. It is so thick and lanoliny and dirty and smells like a farm. DH hates it. :)

I wish I could get it all washed up right now but DH read the directions for washing it along with me and now he won't let me until I can do it right! hehehehe I did wash a small chunk of it and it was shocking to see how much dirt and debris was in the water. I thought I was going to end up with a slighty creamy color but actually got quite a bit of white. There are random pieces of dark brown/black mixed into it all. I cannot wait to get going on this! The white fluff in the middle is the piece I washed up. I washed it twice (not too set on getting it cleaned...I just wanted to do something to it lol) with my wool wash I use on my covers. I didn't do a rinse on it or anything....just patted out the water and let it dry on my sink over night. There are still a few pieces of grass and sticks in it but it shouldn't be hard to get it out. I did open the fleece up when I set it out to dry and it open beautifully...nice and even. There are some thinner spots in it but for the most part it's even. There is still enough lanolin in it that after two washes it still leaves a film on my hands! This stuff is COATED in lanolin. I'm really excited about this and am so glad I posted when I did!

About fleece time!

Woo hoo!!! The lady for the fleece finally emailed me back and I am going to pick it up at 8 tonight! I can't wait. I'm pretty excited about this. To top it off she is willing to meet me somewhere so I don't have to go find her house. So what? Freecycle, for those of you not involved it's www.freecycle.org , is mainly a "you want it, you pick it up...not my problem if you can't" type deal. She is one of the few people who has been willing to meet me somewhere. AND she is meeting me at a place literally around the corner from us.

I need to figure out how to make it into roving. I know I'll have to clean it but that's about all I know at this point. Oh and card it but I don't know how or anything aside from that. Better get to googling!

Ooo a KAL

Woo hoo! I'm in charge of my very first KAL. When I posted asking if anyone wanted to do one with socks I got the idea that maybe we should have an ongoing one. So I posted about it and everyone seems to like the idea. I need to work up some details and then it starts!!! It won't be up until later in the week though, so keep your eyes open! :)

I have decided, due to the KAL idea, that I really need to get to work on my list. I'm tierd of feeling like I have too many projects going. I usually do. Now that everything is written down I am going to work really hard to start crossing items off. We'll be moving at the end of the month to a tiny little town (less than 5,000 people...heck I think it's even less than 4 thousand) and I will have plenty of empty time. Good thing my list is long! :)

I haven't picked up my fleece yet and it's starting to bug me. The lady has been kind of rude about it too. I don't get that. Why offer something and then be rude about it? Way to go! I did manage to find out more about it. It's in total raw glory! It hasn't been cleaned or carded or anything. There's still debris in it even! I'm excited to get it. I guess I'll have to learn it all! There is a place pretty close to where we'll be moving that rents wheels. My mom wasn't sure if they do a rent to own type deal but she's going to ask. Either way, I'll be renting one here soon. what's a good one for a newbie? Better do some looking around!

Socks and charting lace

Before I get into my thoughts today I thought I would correct a mistake I made. lol When I posted the knitting tool two posts down I somehow put in a link to my photobucket. That's all fine and dandy but the leaf lace in there isn't mine! lol It's a scarf a fellow blogger did and I saved the picture to show my sister. The correct link is there but in case you don't scroll down here it is again: http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/tools/IncreaseEvenlySpace.html

So I finally got my sock needles. Well they aren't really sock needles but they are the right size for the socks I am doing. :) I cast on yesterday after I got home from picking them up and was going along pretty good. My day was not going well yesterday so in a moment of frustration something happened to a stitch. It slipped off and I think that the stitck I did in the round BEFORE that one came undone. I still had a stitch but I was missing a round right there. I thought I could go on and it wouldn't make a difference but it did so I frogged, I wasn't too upset though since I was only about .5 inch in. When I went to gte the needles yesterday I had to go to two different stores. I wanted to get some sock yarn for myself along with needles. I had enough on me to get two pairs of needles and one to two skeins of sock yarn depending on brand and weight etc. The first place had no sock yarn at all! So on to the second store where all of theirs was mixed in with a huge section of acrylic. And they didn't have the brand or color I wanted. The one I was willing to get wasn't too bad price wisebut I was about 20 cents off! So I settled for something I didn't really like or want. I did end up returning it and came home sock yarn free. Oh well. I can practice using the Thuja pattern for DH. That might not be a bad idea anyways...bigger needles, thicker yarn.....easy practice right? I posted on MDC to see if anyone would be interested in a sock along. I hope a few ladies say yes. It'd be my first KAL and I think it might be enough inspiration that we all complete two socks! lol

I found a Yahoo group that will help me create a lace pattern. I decided on writing my own for the afghan I want to do and this group is all about charting lace. They tell you how and help with snags and everything! I can't wait to actually have a moment to get into it. I'm pretty excited to think I may write my own pattern and a lace one at that!

Stuck on neutral

I have so many projects in mind and have no idea where to start! I want something simple but I don't want to work on washrags. I want something tough but I want it to knit fast. I have started three things today only to get one row in and pull it off the needles. I had started a wrap for a friend only to find out I did a size too small and had to unravel it. I want to use my acrylic up but I don't want to do toys. I have no reason to do baby stuff like bibs......oh blah!

I'm going to go get a Pepsi and come back and pick ONE thing on my list (which has since grown since I put it here) and do it. I still haven't gotten the needles needed to do DH's socks but he promised we'll go get them by this weekend. He's doing a marathon thing on his game all weekend and I'll be stuck to entertain myself basically. Woo hoo.

I think I need to soak in the tub and go to bed.

Alrighty, I am back and in better spirits. I have some boucle that has been burning a hole in my yarn bucket since I got it. I've had it since Feb. and I love this stuff. I take that back. I love the colors. Dark reds and oranges and browns. Very autumny. Every bit "our colors". I had started making it into an afghan but after doing 20 some odd rows in garter I was bored. So I yanked it off my needles and have plans to start anew. I want this to be able to drape on our couch. Since we are moving and getting a new couch I figure now's the time. I'm having a hard time finding something I love though. I don't want to settle for like. I want leafy lace. I want it to be open and airy and have a leaf pattern in there. I went through google and knittingpatterncentral and other sites to find a pattern but no luck. I found some on KPC that I liked but they all seem so heavy. I don't want a ton of garter stitch and that's what a lot of those patterns had. I want something like Branching Out from knitty. That would be gorgeous as an afghan I think. It fits all my requirements as well...airy, lace, and leafy. Too bad I am number impaired. I posted on MDC to see if anyone could either help me enlarge Branching Out or if they had a pattern similar. I hope I get something. We move in two weeks and I know there is no way I'll get it done but between then and now I have quite a lot of time to work on it. Plus, it's an 800 mile drive to where we're going.

Knitting heaven

A friend of mine just found out she is pregnant! Congrats J!!! Since she's a fellow cloth user I told her I would knit her a gender neutral wrap and then later when she found out the gender a more specific one. She's hoping for a girl so I'm saving her some pink wool. I started on the wrap tonight. It's the Warm Heart Woolies pattern. I'm glad I decided to. I'm not in a good mood and this is a quick knit. It's nice making something so tiny. I wish DD was this small. Ahh, baby lust tonight.

I'm using my 70's wool. J liked it when i showed it to her and thought it was perfect. I'm to the increases portion and I'm still not sure of the color. I've done 8 rows of twisted rib and I'm still feeling the 70's has thrown up in my lap. We'll see once I get into something more flat than ribbing.

I can't remember where I saw it but someone posted a link to an increase tool. I clicked on it and glanced at it before saving it. I figured it would be good to have but I couldn't think of when I would use it. I finally got to use it! My first wrap (the purple one a few posts down) I was unsure about the increases. The directions say to increase four stitches evenly. When I made the purple one I had to write it all out and plan it so it would work right. I thought I had gotten it but it ended up not being right. It was unsymmetrical. You can't tell once it's knitted up but being the knitter I KNEW. It's covered with velcro anyway. ;)

So tonight I got to that portion and took a break to chat with a buddy online. That's when I remembered the tool. I pulled it up, filled in the blanks, and lo and behold! I got two options. The unsymmetrical one (which is exactly what I did on my purple wrap!) and a symmetrical one. It was so easy! I put in two numbers and this program did the math for me. I am so glad I saved this thing!

So here you go: http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/tools/IncreaseEvenlySpace.html
Enjoy! I know it's making my knitting all the more pleasurable already. :)

It's been a little while since I got my Boye interchangables. I wasn't sure about then at first but I think I'm liking them. The actual needle isn't as slick as an Addi but they aren't too shabby at all. I use them in flex mode often. They are pretty decent for that. I don't like them as circular's though. I haven't had a project that requires the sizes I have but the few times I have had my other cables in something as a flex I've used my longest length and connected them as a circ. I just knit back and forth on it. The cables are stiff and awkward feeling. Maybe as I use them they'll loosen up but at this rate I'll stick to something else for circulars. They are my first choice on straights/flex though.

I have a weird little worry. When I'm knitting even though my hands are clean I'm worried I'm going to dirty the yarn up. lol Like when you're peeling a potato even though your hands are clean you can leave little brown watery marks? I'm afraid I'll do the equivalent to my yarn. It never happens but I can't help but think it will.

Fleece score on Freecycle!

The Blossom lady got back to me again today. I think I've got all the issues worked out. I'm owrried I'm making the wrong size though. It seems the pattern runs large. Or at least this piece does and it's just the back. I know once it's washed it will shrink since it's cotton but I doubt it'll shrink that much. I don't want DD to not be able to wear this. The warm months are slowly disappearing. I know this can go into the colder months by adding leggings and a little tee under it but it's so cute I want her to be able to wear it without all the extras.

I cast on for some socks tonight. I think I need better yarn. Or more accuratly thiner yarn. I was using Paton's Merino. I found Thuja for DH and want to do those asap. I thought I had the right size needles but I don't. I'm two sizes too big. I guess that means I still need to get some.

Tomorrow I go pick up some Freecycle goodies (pregnancy tests!) and part of that is some fleece. I'm headed into the craft store as well to get the things I need to make a drop spindle (and of course DPN's). So I posted a wanted on there for some roving and a lady got abck to me saying she had some fleece from a few months ago that she was going to use for spinning and I could have it! I can't wait. I don't know what the difference is between fleece and roving though. Is there a difference? Is fleece still wool? I'm afraid I am a total newbie in the fiber world.

Heavy lifting

So I emailed the maker of Blossom and was surprised to see she had replied to me. It was Sunday. What was she doing at her email? Who cares, I had a reply. She tried to answer my question as best she could. It was rather jumbled and clear as mud (my question that is) but she got it figured out and answered me very well. However, I was supposed to be on a knint row right now. I'm not. I'm on a purl row and I don't know what number row it is. It's either row 10 or row 1. How do I pick? The pattern is supposed to be row one as a knit. Maybe I should do this row as row ten, knit my next row and count that as row one to....OMG! I figured it out! Yay!!! I can now continue on....

I had put Blossom down for a day too long I think. I picked it up to work on it today and set it back down after three stitches. Maybe it's not the wait I had to do. Maybe I am just not feeling like knitting. I have the urge to create something but I don't want to put the effort in it. I was telling my husband today that it's a shame I can't hire someone to just start my projects for me. I could just hire some lady to cast on for all my projects and do an inch or so. That's when I start liking what I'm doing. Those first couple inches bite. You can't see your pattern and it's still too short to have any real flow to it. Maybe it's just me.

Checking my blogs today I saw Mason Dixon had updated so I headed over there to read it. It always gets me inspired. I want to knit fabulous things afterward. GIANT fabulous things. Whether in size or quantity. I can't help it. I usually go rifiling through my yarn and needles after I finish reading and go to bed with high aspirations only to wake up staring at some list. Tonight was no different. I read the entry, clicked on the KAL button, and was immersed in such beautiful knitting that I ran outside.

???

Yeah, I ran outside. I picked up some knitting paraphenilia the other day from a Freecycler. When we were in Idaho I got an email asking if I was still looking for needles. Being the needle whore that I am I said yes, explained what was going on, and set up a time to pick them up. When I got the box I was kind of dissapointed. There was some very random needles, bias tape, and god awful (in color) acrylics. I grumbled a bit and put the box in the trunk so we could go about our business. I had forgotten about it until tonight.

I jsut went through it and the needles are far better than I thought. I have a huge pair for a blanket I have already been planning and some random sizes. Mainly 10's and 8's. Seems that's a popular size and you can't have too many. There was also a set of 4 plastic size 9 DPN's. But the best part?

A set of four metal size 1 or 0 (there are no markings and I have no needle sizer) DPN's. I can do socks now!!! I wasn't able to get a set the other night when I decided to try socks. I figured I wans't going to get them either. We had to put it off until after our move basically since money is tight. I was bummed. Seeing these made me rush upstairs and cast on and split just to prove I could do it. I can't wait. I can do socks now!! Woo hoo!

And of course...I made a list. I knew it would happen. And after I made that list I set up a tenative list of tomorrow's (well today....it's early) activities and I actually put on there "knit". Yeah, I scheduled in knitting because my list is so massive. Without further ado I introduce "The List":

red washcloths: Less than half of one done.
yellow washcloths: 0
SIL's washcloth: 0
K's washcloth: started and then frogged. Sitting at 0
Blossom: About two inches done. Of the back. The first piece. Of many.
Katja: %^#$%^$ One cup done. Sitting in the bottom of the knitting bag turned away from prying eyes.
Nursery block: 3.5 of 6 complete. Seaming and stuffing required.
Woolie Wonder Wrap: Yarn has been picked.
Picky Pants for S: Cast on
Picky Pants for MDC mama: waiting on yarn
Boucle Afghan: Yanked off small needles and waiting to be frogged for MUCH larger ones.
Wool bathmat: Yanked off needles, pattern refigured, considered Absorba the bathmat, frogged, and reqound. Sitting and waiting for me to come back.
Bag for tub letters: Yarn needs to be picked. Going back and forth on type of yarn. Nothing fancy needed but why settle for less? It would be a good way to get rid of some acrylic.....
Wet bag: Yarn needs picked
Felted boxes: Yarn has been set aside and waits.
Felted clogs: Need pattern and yarn
Socks: Need some yarn!
Ballet Camisole (Magknits): Yarn needs picked

Those are just the projects I jotted down prior to looking through Mason Dixon. I'm going to do some bibs, burp rags, and blankets as well. As you can see most of this is just floating thoughts in my head. I have a lot of yarn deciding to do but at least I can see where I sit now. Maybe I should stick to this list and not add or take away anything until I finish it all. Granted there are some things that will always be on the list (like Picky Pants) but that shouldn't put a damper on my knitting. Maybe this will increase my knitting desire. :)

Felted clogs and things

Wow, Blossom either works up quickly or I've actually had knitting time today. Not sure which one but either way it's lovely. I've run into a snag but I emailed the lady who made the pattern and hope she can help me out. I hope it's soon. I have put it down until I get a reply but am really wanting to just go ahead and do it. Screw making sure I'm doing it right. :)

We've decided that we're going to do a no shoes policy at our new place. Our current carpet is NASTY. Between the dogs and the constant in and out it's gross. It's dirty and stained and grimy feeling. We've been wanting to to do a no shoes poilcy here but just decided on it. We've been waiting to get the carpets cleaned before doing it (kind of grody to not wear shoes in the house right now) but haven't been able to do that. Thinking about it all has gotten us grossed out. DD crawls on that! And plays on the floor. They should be in better condition. We're kicking ourselves for not having cleaned the carpets when we first moved in. Oh well.

So what does that have to do with knitting? DH wants me to knit him some socks (in a genius moment of remembering I was wanting to do them) and some felted clogs. I know someone out ther eposted about themo n her blog but I can't remember who. I googled it and couldn't find a free pattern. I would need for it to be a free one since we're broke with moving. :) I'm pretty excited about the no shoes thing. It'll be a bit tough with his family since his dad wears shoes from the moment he wakes up (as in slips into them as he throws his feet off the bed) til he goes to bed (as in slips out of them as he swings his feet into bed). My side is a bunch of shoeless heathens so it'll be nothing to get them to take theirs off. I'm going to find a nice shoe rack so we won't be tripping over them all the time.

Blossoming along

I have been wanting to try Blossom from MagKnits forever now. I found it by accident one night awhile back and didn't bother to save it. I thought I would remember enough of the details to google it later on. I forgot everything though except what it looked like and even that was foggy. All I knew was it was a wrap and had some embroidery on it. I finally found it again way too late. The sizing no longer worked. DD was older than 9 months. I posted on Mothering last night to see if someone had made it for their 1 year old. I so so wanted this. It's cute and I have the perfect yarn for it. Someone was able to convert it for me for two more sizes!!! Thank you frogger!!!! I cast on last night and did a couple rows. I plan on working on it some more today and I hope I can get it done this weekend. We'll see though. My knitting has been reduced lately due to DD takeing later naps. And DSS being here. And keeping those two from killing each other. :)

I am thinking about doing the Ballet Camisole from MagKnits as well. It's pretty and seems easy enough that I think I could do it. I have enough cotton to do it although it's not in the colors I would neccessarily pick for myself. I wasn't sure when I bought this cotton anyway. It's called Peppercorn I think. Not my cup o' tea. There was some other colors there but I was thinking about DD and the patterns I wanted to do. Oh well. I'll give it a try and if it's not looking good I can frog it.

I'm going to try socks as well. I plan on picking up some metal DPN's here soon. I need to find a pattern that would work for me though so I can get the right size. I need to get some sock yarn too. I have a pattern for DH picked out already and am excited about trying them.

I need to try and bang out a few projects real fast. We're getting ready to move (800 miles!) and yarn and knitting will be packed. Who knows when I'll get to it again. I'm sure it'll get out of packing as quickly as the computers will. Don't want that gathering dust! :)

Pictures take 3

Ok since the last post didn't allow me to post the bad 70's acrylic for comparison I'll put it here and YOU can scroll down and see the likeness.






See? Shocking isn't it? On to brighter things! A lovely bag and some lovely books. :)




















This is the outside.













And this is the inside. Super roomy! I think last time I checked it held about 16 skeins of wool in there. And that was actual Paton's Merino skeins. I'm sure it could hold more. :)














I feel official with these books. Don't know why. :) I am working on the nursery block from the Toys one and am working on getting some stuff for a few things out of the Mason Dixon one. I'm liking them both but have heard that the Toys one has pattern issues. I haven't found them yet but I'm not an expert at that sor tof stuff. Plus I haven't done anything more than a knit square from it. :)



I thought long and hard about doing a picture of my needles. But in order to NOT be laughed at by my peers I have opted not to. It's a bit ridiculous how many I have now. I even picked up more from Freecycle. Someone found a very old wanted ad by me and even though I have a ton of needles already I said yes I would love them. Ok, now that I have drug this on for three posts I will stop here. Now I can say I have updated this completely and will no longer fret about letting my many (ha!) readers down. :)

Pictures take 2

Ahhh...cotton. This one is a variety. :) The red and yellow are becoming washcloths for us. As sad as this is we have maybe three in our whole house. We just use cloth wipes for everything and it's getting old. DH requested I make some so I am. You can see the beginning of one in red for our kitchen. Since I am doing them for both kitchen and bathroom they will be two different patterns so as not to intermix them. I know I can clean them well but frankly the idea of wiping kitchen counter grime across my face is gross. I don't care how clean it is. The Tatamy Tweed is a gift that was sent to me. And boy is it heavenly! It's a cotton blend and is so soft and smooth. There is a HUGE difference between that and the other stuff. I'm using it to make Katja ($ # ^ @ % $ #) and yes that is a cup on a DPN sticking out of the green. No it has not been finsihed. I can't tell you when it will be either. ($ # % $ @ # $)






This is my most recent cotton. Two one pound cones bought at Wal-Mart while on vacation. I plan on making these into some clothes for the wee one as well. I'd love to do Blossom but need to get the pattern altered for a 13 month old. I would do it but am unable to. Basically me+math/alterations= a sobbing and hysterical me. Or a pissed and irrational me. Or an onery and irritated me.


This is Picky Pants wanna be wool. I bought this not too long ago when I bought my great bag (see next post lol). I had visions for it. It has since sat in the bottom of said great bag waiting for me to remember it's there. I remember. I just realized once I got it home that they are rather boyish colors and well.....the daughter is a girl. I was so excited to be out buying wool and sad to see that all they had was a weak selection of Paton's that I jumped and bought a good color combo as opposed to a good color combo for a girl. Oh well. People around me are pregnant and if worse comes to worse I can knit something for them. Not that that is bad at all. :)

And now...here comes the 70's. I have decided that this yarn is what the 70's would look like if it were thrown up by a small animal...such as a cat. I did a test swatch out of it and it's not as bad knit up but I have a hard time knitting very much of it since I do find it ugly. I will use it and the longer it sits on my table looking at me the more I grow to like it. I doubt I will ever love it. Heck, it's more of an aquaintance to me.

















And for a comparison since I did mention that it looks like a bad batch of 70's acrylic that I have....a picture of the bad 70's acrylic. (ok check next post....stupid blogger! %$@^%$#^!)

Pictures take 1

Ok after much fighting with Blogger tonight I have decided I will need to do this as a series of posts. I finally have pictures for you!!! There are a couple things missing but not a lot. One is hte bag I made my sister. It was the project I did in Freedom Wool (greens and purples). Just a basketweake rectangle, folded in half, and sewn up the sides. Nothing fancy. The other missing thing is the washclothes I made my sister in law. They were done in green and white cotton (their preferred colors). One was all garter stitch, one was stockinette with a border of garter, and one was thick "ribbing". Basically it was 13 knit, 13 purl, and 13 knit. They turned out lovely and I have enough left over to make her one more. Ok...I'm going to give this another try!





This was my first ever soaker. It's Tiny Bird's free pattern. I did it in some acrylic I had bought in December (well the yarn for the body was in December). I LOVE this yarn. Well more like the color. It's Red Heart T.L.C. and is surprisngly soft for acrylic. I never got around to adding the ruffles though. 1.) I was to afraid to learn how to pick up stitches and THEN figure out a ruffle and 2.) I don't crochet. I know someone who does but frankly she's a hag and I didn't want to ask her. :) It was my first real seaming project. I just sewed up and down the sides. I wish I had figured out a better way cause it ain't pretty. I tucked some strays so you can't see in the picture but trust me. I think I would have fit better had I taken the time to do it right. I have some of the body yarn left over and even though I have decided acrylic soakers aren't for us I am tempted to use it up as a pair of shorts.




This was my secnod cover. This was the free Warm Heart Woolies wrap pattern. I LOVE this pattern! It fits my munchkin perfectly! I would make the tabs longer but other than that I have no complaints with it. Again, nasty acrylic. This was some NASTY acyrlic too. My first soaker I thought everyone was just being hoighty toighty when they trashed acrylic but this made me a believer. It was squeaky and rough and just plain out icky! It made me decide not to continue using up my acrylic (remeber I was using it to justify using the good stuff in the end?). It was a dissapointment for sure. I really liked this color combo and had plans. I even had various combos picked out and laid aside. *sigh* I do plan on making more of this wrap though.

Now this! Now this stuff....oh my heavens!!!! This was my first official "cool" buy in the wool department. Manos color 104. Also known as Prarie. I LOVED this stuff. I bought two skeins thinking I was going to need them both for my Picky Pants. Didn't turn out that way and I'm happy about that. :) This quickly became......



this. :) The picture DOES NOT do it justice (and it changes the color quite a bit huh?). I did a ruffle edge that is a need-to-be-seen-in-person-on-a-person type edge. :) I lvoe these shorts. I did shorten the legs a bit though. The chitlin was mainly crawling when I did these and was only walking a little bit. I made them shorter so that crawling would remain easy. Her knees tend to catch her cloths/covers and it's awkward. Not a week after I finished them she started walking full time. Yay! :) They are missing the drawstring but only cause I haven't made one yet. I was unsure about doing one since they sit low on her. After a few washes and wearings they have stretched a bit but not as much as I had hoped. I think next time I'll make the waist a bit longer and maybe add a round or two to the body. I'm pretty proud of them none the less.

On to part two!

We are home!!! Not a lot of knitting was done but mainly cause we were so busy.

I managed to whip up three wash rags for my SIL. There was enough to d o four but I didn't get them done until the night before we left and I didn't think I could get the fourth one done in time. I think I may do it anyways and mail it to her. She seemed to like them but was on the verge of leaving so she didn't really look at them. I did three different patterns and really liked how they turned out. I was pretty pleased with them. DH was too. He kept complementing me on them.

I got some cotton. Two cone of Peaches and Cream. Lovely stuff. I can't wait to start using it up. I'll post pictures later on when I update with pictures. I do plan on it. DH has been passing my blog link around and I am feeling insecure and needing to get something up other than a whiney post. :)

I recently traded some Addi Turbo's for some yarn. They were a length I don't use so it wasn't hard to give them up. I was pretty excited since I was getting TWO skeins of yarn. I got it in the mail while we were gone and got it out last night. It's ugly. The way she described it was pretty. Rust and chocolaty browns. Very earthy. It's more like the 70's gone bad. In fact I have some nasty acrylic that T's wife found for me that matches it EXACTLY! I about cried when i pulled it out the envelope. I was hoping it was just the late hour and the poor lighting but after looking at it some more today it's still ugly. I don't know what I'm going to use it for. I'm thinking I may save it to put in the business. Maybe someone else out there will like it. Someone has to, after all someone liked it enough to make it. Or maybe they didn't like how it turned out and that's why it was sold. Who knows. I'm pretty disappointed. There were some other yarns I could have traded for that I wanted as well and I am wishing I had chosen one of them. I knew I should have asked for pictures. Oh well. It's really soft which I am thinking is it's only redeeming quality at this point.