The Cat Won

Remember those yellow socks? The ones that I knit from light yellow cotton and darker yellow merino for the toes, heels, and cuffs? Remember how you read that and thought "uh-oh: Why is she knitting with 2 different yarns? Doesn't she know they won't wash evenly?"
Well, I should have known better: You were right.
My first mistake was in the original thought: It was only my second pair of socks ever, and I thought "Why not mix up this yarn? It's donated yarn, and I am a beginner, and it will be an interesting project".
My second mistakes landed the socks in the UFO pile (see below).
My third mistake was re-knitting the socks, worrying about the perfection of a tiny decrease (again, see below) or a kitty-chewed strand (ditto), instead of taking the opportunity to remove the yellow merino altogether. Maybe the kitty was trying to tell me something...
4th mistake was faith in my laundry skills. I blissfully maintained that I would handwash in cold water and the cotton and merino would be fine. I don't know what made me believe I could maintain such discipline.
So I wore them last week.
Oddly enough, the cat was still oddly attracted to the merino, and attacked my feet several times.
And I washed them. In the machine. In hot water with the towels. Figured they would be fine as long as the blowing trade winds didn't blow out the pilot light on the water heater. Which the wind did. In the middle of the towel load.
Hot water plus cold water plus machine agitation plus merino wool toes, heels and cuffs equal...
FELT.
Or maybe they equal a much loved pair of catnipped stuffed kitty chew toys.