Positive Thinking didn't do squat

No matter how much I tried to tell myself to just think positive, there was no saving this project. I think there is equal blame to go around between my knitting skills (or lack thereof) and the um very nice person I'm sure who devised this diabolical Entrelac Tote pattern from Knit Picks.

There is a silver lining: I experimented with using multiple colors - 6, one for each color in the bag - with a mondo crochet hook . That was the best part of this whole thing. Approximately 30' of yarn per strand & this is what I got:

And I was quite happy with it. It turned out way cooler than everyone BUT me figured it would.

HA!

The rest of the project? Yeah. Not so much. Seriously, this is the fugliest thing I have made so far. And that includes my first ever project of an acrylic scarf for my son and the Brody scarf (again, acrylic. Pink & green, no less). I can see you don't believe me. I can hear you saying "Oh, come on! How bad can it be? Really?"

HA!

First, there were the holes. Lots of them. Everywhere I picked up stitches for the first set of triangles. There are 23 rows, with 13 picked up stitches. Of course it's going to be...well, BAD is the only word I can come up with. If I had known more about what I was doing, I would have made sure to slip the stitch on the side of the triangle that would get picked up. In fact, I'm looking at this picture and at the pattern, and I still don't know exactly how this happened. IMHO, the pattern designer could have put more info in the pattern on how to avoid this.

OK, so here is the whole damn thing in all of its un-felted, um, well, not glory, that's for damn sure. Make a mental note of those puckery places up near the top. They come into play shortly. And lookit that loverly crocheted strap.

See that ridge around the bottom? It is called the "tote base" and was supposed to be made by purling for 4 rows, then knitting the next round and picking up the "bar of the last knit stitch". Wha.....? I tried and said fuckitall, got about 1/2 through the knit round just *knitting* and realized it was supposed to be a ridge. So I just sewed it up after it all was done. Speaking of sewing, there were a bajillion ends to weave in. A BAJILLION. Seriously.

OK. Enough procrastinating. Here is the finished....thing....

And don't give me any of that guff about how it's felted and I can just "push and pull it into shape." What, you think I didn't try that? Criminy. I do love the way the colors worked out - wasn't all that sure about it when I started. The main point of this project was to stash-bust. Well, okey dokey then. I think I used 2 balls of the blue, one of the light brown and about 1/2 ball of each of the other colors. Yippee.

OH! OH! And I *just* realized: The senseless holes made with YO's in the top band for the handles? Gone. Figures.

I'm going to go pet my new Malabrigo and then try to figure out the Magic Loop thing so I can get cracking on the Pinwheel Sweater. Oh, and to clarify - no, sadly the Pinwheel will not be made from the Malabrigo. It is going to be more WOTA stashbusting. Knitting with the Malabrigo will be my prize for finishing the sweater. Or maybe for getting 3 balls into it. Or maybe for figuring out the Magic Loop. Or maybe for re-reading & watching tutorials on Magic Loop. Or maybe just for thinking about starting the sweater....