My Custom, 3'x5' Wool Rug for Under $150 (excluding slave labor, my own)

Well, sometimes doubt and procrastination equals savings. In my deliberations, I found the perfect palette (I am hoping) AND it's cheaper than my two prior options. But, I do have to increase my yarn length 12.5%, to at least 2.25". That makes it 121,500" in total, minimum. So, now we have: 

•  White: 37% = 44,955" or 1248.75 yards = 6 skeins of 220 or 12 of 110
• Kelly: 18% = 21,870" or 607.5 yards = 3 skeins of 220 or 6 of 110
• Chartreuse: 13% = 15,795" or 438.75 yards = 2 skeins of 220
• Marigold: 14% = 17,010" or 472.5 yards = 2 skeins of 220
• Yellow: 14% = 17,010" or 472.5 yards = 2 skeins of 220
• Black: 2% = 2,430" or 67.5 yards = 1 skein of 110

But! I found more than half of the yarn for $2.50 per 110 yards at Hobbii.com. So, I under estimated the white in my excitement and bought only 10 skeins and so I'm under for the white by 148.75 yards. Another $5. The rest are Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Superwash. All 3 types of yarn that I am using have the same weight and ply. Imagine. Here's the breakdown for yarn:

220 Superwash in Sulfur (formerly known as chartreuse): 2 * 11.50 = $23

220 Superwash in Gold Fusion (formerly marigold): 2 * 11.50 = $23

220 in Daisy Yellow (formerly yellow): 2 * 11 = $22

Free shipping, total: $68. Now for the other 43%:

Friends wool in kelly: 6 * 2.50 = $16

Friends wool in black: 1 * 2.50 = $2.50

Friends wool in white :10 * 2.50 = $25, but, should have been 12 for $30, oops!

That makes $42.50 in Friends wool, plus $4.99 shipping and $4.21 tax, or $51.40 for 1923.7 yards of wool. Hmmmm...What's the catch? I'll tell you when it arrives.

I want to change the image to reflect my more orangey palette. I hope it looks nice, because now I am worried I've gone too John Boehner (Donald Trump for those of you who follow politics "lightly"). What do you think? Can you spot the differences?

There is no way that I even changed it. I am impressed with myself! The best news is that the white that I didn't buy enough of is a true white, or it looks more so than most wools I've seen. So, this is looking fortuitous as a beginning. Planning definitely helps rather than just jumping in. And testing, because I used my 2" yarn bits and they were too fiddly, so I increased it and all it affected was the white.

In any case, optimistic me wants to believe that for the low, low price of $119.00 plus the cost of the hook, $8, I will have myself a custom wool rug? The reason I am not factoring in the canvas is because it was a bit irregular and I am trying to get my money back. Not too shabby for a 3'x5' rug in wool!

I did also make some more egregious errors than just not ordering enough white. This was before I started officially planning and just jumped into things. I was ordering pre-cut yarn and it was going to cost me a small fortune for the wool. Most pre-cut wool has two major drawbacks, besides the exorbitant cost of the wool: 1) it is sourced exclusively overseas retail so factor in exchange rates and foreign shipping and 2) it comes in limited colors. So, even if budget was no issue, pre-cut wool is not going to make floor art! Luckily, the buyers that I started buying from, in grossly underestimated amounts, did not bother to check if the packages all came from the same dye lot and they did not and I got my money back on all of it. The only other mistake so far was buying a hook that is too large, and that set me back $8. I eyeballed it and thought I estimated correctly, but the flange was back and when it's folded up, it makes the hook too big to fit through the holes without tearing the canvas. The reason I had to eyeball it is because there were no dimensions on the package. So, now I want my $8 back! Haha! I will get it, too! I will not accept shoddy quality!

Now I'm noticing two things about my longer strand computations. First, I am not only short the white, but 220 x 2 < 472.5 yards, so now I need to two white for $5, plus the $4.99 shipping and $0.45 tax, and one more each of expensive Daisy Yellow and Gold Fusion. Two inches is going to have to work with my new hook that I should be getting for free, because we just added $22.50 more onto the total. $22.50 worth of 220 wool + $10.35 in Friends + $119 already spent = $151.85. My pride wants this rug under $150. I will make it work!