Never try to raster off a layer of paint (and other realizations)

I started this week with a brilliant plan. It failed.

One of the planned designs I have is based on the character Dante from the Devil May Cry series. When promotional art started coming out for the 2013 reboot this picture was a part of it.

and everyone went crazy over the hair colour

I though it would be a pretty good one to base a picture of the final product on, so I decided that I would attempt to replicate the police board/sign/thingy that he's holding.
I found a suitable piece of wood and painted it black. I was planning on using the laser cutter at my school to raster away the text. After I had put on the second coat of paint I had a stroke of brilliance. I could use a layer of white paint under a layer of black paint. It was, of course, too late at that point, so I decided to let the paint dry, use this as a test, and use the other side as a final product.
Through trial, but mostly error, I found out that I could raster away a layer of paint. So by Thursday, I had the other side of the board ready, black paint with a layer of white underneath. I put it in the laser cutter, loaded in my pattern, hit "GO". ...................................................................and realized that it was turned the wrong way.
I rotated the board, started again, waited for an interminable amount of time, only to find that the top layer of paint hadn't come off-I'd have to run it again. I went to put the board back in, only to realize I hadn't marked where I'd placed it. This meant I had to approximate, leading to a misplaced engraving. After trying a few more times to get it back in the right place, and to simply rub off the paint after the first raster I gave up. I threw the board away, ranted about being done with "life, the universe, everything" and went back to lunch.

For the knitted product itself, I was going to use Yarn Carnival Fire Dancer in the colorway 1832 degrees along with another yarn in a darker toast color.

Pretty, isn't it?

But then I realized; I don't have the money to but both skeins of yarn right now. Oy.

But I have other designs that I can work on, so we'll just have to wait and see what catches my eye at Hill Country Weavers.