Last weekend I attended Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg, Illinois. I was lucky enough to attend with a couple of good friends. I came home with a great pattern and 20 balls of yarn from one of those sale bins of yarn that I thought might work.
I knit a swatch, adjusted needles and got started on my new sweater determined to actually finish it and feeling certain that this will be the one that I will wear and love.
36 rows in I realize that I am knitting the stitch pattern way wrong.
I knit a swatch knitting the stitch pattern the right way.
17 rows in I realize that the cast on edge looks pretty sloppy. A quick review of the instructions confirms that I did the cable cast on incorrectly.
I start over again. Casted on correctly and now am knitting the stitch pattern correctly (at least I think I am).
Show my mom what I'm working on. The sweater pattern calls for 2 colors, and my mom (who has pretty good taste) convinces me that the 2nd color I have doesn't really compliment the 1st color very well.
Get on-line to hunt down a different color of that yarn that might work better.
Realize that although I can buy that yarn in a more complimentary color on-line, it is going to cost me about twice as much as it was in the sale bin at the yarn expo.
Sigh.