"in league with the law"

Tonight was the rehearsal dinner for Auntie Sue's wedding and all the out of townies as well as us wedding partiers were there. The most adorable was her former roommate's eight-year-old daughter who told us a joke she made up herself and told us in her 8 yr old english accent.
"What do you call a flea that's in league with the law?"
"A po-lice-man."

Cargo pants bag

At the Maker Faire swap over a year ago, I picked up a pair of boys cargo shorts with the idea of turning the pockets into a bag. Well I finally got around to it! I cut off the leg and ripped the hem to get a little extra material. This gave enough space to do a gusseted bottom. I lined it with red cotton duck, which is pretty stiff and helps keep the shape. The heavy duty zipper and belt/strap are both from the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse (one zipper down, 231 to go). I've never made a bag like this before and I learned a lot about what not to do. For example, I sewed in the zipper before attaching the strap = difficult. I may make a tutorial for the second leg; that is, if that one goes significantly more smoothly.

The problem with multi-colored yarn.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Why do some multi-colored yarns look fantastic after knitting and some look like color barf? Its hard to tell by just looking at the ball. Exhibit A: multi-colored yarn by Malabrigo Yarn that I used to knit a herringbone stitch scarf (aka My So-Called Scarf). This I like. Exhibit B: yarn by Three Sheep Yarn striped with solid purple that looks like barf. Ok maybe its not that bad, but I'm less than happy with it. And its supposed to be a gift, so that make me madder at it. Nonetheless, I was really attracted to the yarn ball in the store.
One indicator might be the length of each color. For example in Exhibit A I got a couple stitches in each color before it changed. With the Afghan yarn, sometimes I get just one stitch and then its another color. Maybe I'm just unhappy with the color palette. How do other people evaluate multi-colored yarns before buying them?