Major rethink : a short rant

So I spent a lot of this afternoon knitting the final chunk of the coat/shrug I started at SkipNorth to wear at a family wedding. Here it was at 6:30 this evening (measurements: 150cm/60" by 84cm/34" as specified; armholes stitched up with blue yarn to stop them stretching while knitting):

and here it was at 7:30 this evening (measurements somewhat more irrelevant...)

In between there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth. This is what it's meant to look like. I realise that even on my best days, dressed to the nines, I'm not ever going to achieve the level of elegance and sophistication this model would demonstrate while wading out of a muddy swamp; but I'd also not calculated for the difference a completely different drape at the same no of sts/inch would give me.

In short it was hideous. It was so completely, wildly ugly that even that red-haired girl in Interweave Knits, the one who must in some way have offended The Powers That Be and always gets the truly awful stuff to wear, would curl up her lip and stamp off the set in disgust.

So; it's going to be a wrap now, in horseshoe lace and using considerably bigger needles in an attempt to introduce some drape. I have 6 days, 4 of which are going to be spent at work. Anyone want to rate my chances?

As an additional irritation, the eagle-eyed will have spotted that there are 2 balls of this yarn which are obviously of a different batch - stripes near the top and bottom of the knitted piece, and the 2 balls at the top of the pile in the unpicked yarn. This despite being labelled as the same dyelot as the others, and being Patons synthetic.... slightly poor, I feel... Doesn't matter now for the finished object - I'll be using considerably less yarn and will turn the rest into a sofa throw - but somewhat annoying nevertheless.

I'll be the one sitting in the corner muttering into a pile of green knitting for a while then...