Dinky Dyes scarf HD

So while pawing through Jo's yarn at CATS, I picked some interesting rusty/orangey stuff. I decided to make it into a scarf using the same pattern that Ann was doing for her daughter's scarf from the Crochet for Dummies book (shut up, I love Dummies books).

And lo' I have a beautimous scarf...

Come on, go ahead and comment about my awesome natural photo taking abilities. You know you want to feed my ego. It's draped over a big mesquite branch in the backyard, it's doubled and doubled again. It's a really long scarf, but it's groovy that way. It's not quite as bright as the picture, but hey, the light wasn't the best, and I decided to let the Rebel have its way with the flash. Oh, and right - I haven't washed and shaped it yet, so yeah, it's still a little funky warped.

Here's a close up of the pattern (give yourself a cookie if you find the Mona hair)

I really love the way the colors play - I really, really do.

And then there's the issue of the actual yarn. I freakin' love it and I could roll and roll in yarn like this forever. But, I have two problems when I want to play with yarn:

1) I must touch it and see it in person. I really need to, before I'll buy anything. I cannot order over the internet (if you don't count frantic emails to Jo for more), there's just a short there that makes me not believe what I"m seeing. I think too many bad internet hand-dyed fabric purchases broke me when I was making my babysteps into the wide world of internet craft purchasing. It's great that everyone loves various knitting/yarn sites (feel free to email me with info, I might be tempted into yarn bravery), but I haven't felt I could do it yet

2) I live in a horrible horrible land at the ass end of the universe, which means no LYS. I get Michaels and HobbyLobby in all of their mass-manufactured acrylic glory (not that I hate acrylic or acrylic blends or anything

So this is my first real foray into nice yarn. It's 100% superwash merino (whatever that means, except that I know Merino is sheep, therefore I assume this is wool), and it was SO soft and happy to work with. I did not want to put my project down because it just felt so good in my hands. It's kinda like going from using a Dimensions kit to using lugana with silk threads and Piecemaker needles. You can't even begin to explain the difference by using tired terms like "night and day"

Dear "more advanced (or whatever)" knitters/crocheters: I believe I have seen the light. Now someone hand me some good yarn and fly me to a good LYS. I've pulled the wool I got in SLC last year off of the shelf, and I'm so looking for another project.