Sometimes It Doesn't Work

I was working on Fire, the fourth in a set of elemental mystery shawls. I have the first and third partially complete, and love the second. I finally kept up wit the pattern, and well, hated it. My yarn choices just weren't working.

The colors were suggested as a solid and a variegated, but what I didn't realize was the fire-y color should have been the variegated one. Strike one. Secondly, I didn't have any more orange but had asked multiple people on Ravelry to buy theirs. No one responded. Strike two. I had a contrasting color that would work, so it was really only half a strike, but I would have preferred more orange. The purple yarn wasn't really a good choice for cables. Strike three. And the purple yarn was Not Soft. Not even a little bit. I would not wear this in the future, and would not gift it. It had to go. Strike four. It's out.