On the heels of success... THIS

I was feeling pretty darn confident in my knitting skills, especially after successfully completing a nice-looking, well-fitting sweater. So when I found a cute, easy looking pattern to make some slippers with some yarn from my stash, I thought "no sweat". It was knitting up pretty quickly, as I expected. The sole was the right size, all was well. So why in the world, when I believe I followed the pattern correctly, does it look like THIS?!

When finished, it is supposed to look like this: