The Plymouth yarn was a gift from a friend who passed away. I waited for the right color to show up and it did. Thanks Sharon.
Misinterpreted dropped stitch pattern. Starting over. A typical drop stitch drops one yarn over and works the second. This does not and would increase stitches exponentially. Also the photo of the pattern makes it apples that the dropped stitch pattern is knit just before the border. It is not.

Just not the right pattern for this yarn.