Quite some time ago, a dear friend gave me a lovely assortment of yarn from the knitting designer Jared Flood called "Shelter". http://brooklyntweed.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=1 I had seen it on line and had a quite severe desire to knit with it, so her gift was particularly sweet. It comes in the most earthy, lovely colors and as soon as I got it home I knit up a swatch to see how it would felt. That's when things got a little sketchy. The swatch didn't felt very well at all. I was so bummed! I put the yarn away for many months. Then not long ago while I was organizing yarn bins… again… :-)  I looked at and fondled the yarn and just fell in love with it all over again. I decided to give it my best shot. I also made what turned out to be a very good decision. I knit the bag using two strands of yarn. It made all the difference. And though I had to run it in the washer twice as long as other projects, it turned out beautiful:     I guess with this yarn, I had to wait till the planets aligned. I'm glad they did.