The good and the NOT SO bad

In a moment of panic I threw everything into a bath and soaked my blue pieces to see if my attempt at ignoring kinked yarn would right itself.
The Good:

Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I think it's better.  Now the never-used yarn looks a little rougher and although I know exactly where they start and stop, I think I can fool even some knitters.  When you see the next step  you'll understand.  (I was prepared for no visible difference after comments from TechKnitter.
I was going to say there's a bad side to this:  When I placed it out to dry (flat) I thought to myself, this is really longer than I thought.  I measured and sure enough is was...2 cm longer than I intended.  With growing children, 2 cm is a non-issue and then to prove my point I compared it to a size 2 dress.  I'm encouraged to "soldier on".