When seemingly good ideas go horribly awry...

So, waaaaaay back in late July, a friend saw the big tote I made & loved it. She wanted one JUST like it, but in black, grey & red. And even better, she wanted to PAY me for it. Like with real money.

So, what did I do? Proceeded to immediately freak out.

Well, OK. Not immediately.

I ordered yarn from KnitPicks, after trying to figure out how Paton's & WOTA would felt together. Hey, I was broke, had th ePaton's in red & WOTA was cheaper. That, btw, is how the small striped Sophie pictured below came about. Long story slightly shorter, I ordered yarn from KP & immediately fell in lurve with WOTA.

Then I started thinking. Bad, bad thing to do. Really. Don't think about knitting. Just DO it.

Sigh.

"What if she doesn't like it? I can't take money from her. This bag is too floppy. I can't take money from her for a floppy bag. *I KNOW!* I'll double the yarn & make it on 13's! YEAH! Oh, wait. I don't have enough WOTA. Crap. OK, I'll use every JoAnn's coupon I have, make several trips & get twice as much as I used on the 1st one. Yay.

Heavy sigh.

So, I wasn't 1/3 through the bag and had already blown through over 1/2 the amount of MC yarn that I had planned. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP.

Now, what do I do? Check with the yarn hores. Consensus? Add a row to each stripe & felt like mad - it will felt up denser. Okay.

And guess what? That didn't work so good. I now have a tall, skinnier bag. Went through THREE cycles in the machine, including a cold rinse to kinda shock the yarn. No go.

Check this out:


WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE?

Lesson learned: When someone wants to buy something, make them what they asked for, not something "better."

Dammnit.