Take 2

This is the valiant first try for ene's scarf. I managed to cast on the required 375 stitches and then try the first row. I say try, because when I got to the end I was either 15 stitches short or 5 stitches too many. Either way, it was a bad sign. It was absolute torture for me to have to CO that many stitches to begin with, but to get to the end of the row and realize that you did something very wrong, somewhere, was the worst feeling. I knew it was going happen, though. Me, who can't count, casting on 375 stitches (with the yarn doubled, btw....you know, to add insult to injury) there was just no way I couldn't screw up. I'm pretty sure that I CO the right number, and that I got distracted somewhere in that first row and goofed up. Now, I maybe could have tinked back to find my mistake, but I was using size 5s instead of 6s and I could tell that it was just going to make too dense a fabric for the yarn that I got. The yarn, by the way, is Rowan 4 ply soft in Whisper, which I think is the perfect color and I got it on sale (did you hear me squeal?). So, in an angry fit, I pulled off all the stitches and frogged. This seems like a relatively simple task, except that getting the stitches over the join was a nightmare.
As it is my hands hurt just thinking about how obnoxious knitting that first row was to begin with. At first I thought it the needles fault. These are Plymouth Bamboo and it's my first time using them. I was taking Plymouth's name in vain for quite awhile as I worked on re winding the ball so I could CO again. I don't happen to have any other needles (except size 1s) in 32" and decided that I might as well cram all those stitches on another pair of needles. If I couldn't fit them, then I would just have to buy another set of needles (!). I was a little pissy at this point. Can you tell? So, I pulled out the trusty Crystal Palace size 6s (4.25mm). This is a half mm larger than the size 5s, and though the join in the needles is frustrating, I figured nothing could be as frustrating as the Plymouths. So I spent another hour and half getting all those stitches on there. About half way through, it got really hard to move the stitches along and I realized that that's the way it goes when you get that many doubled stiches on the needles. Really, and I knew this, I should have used my 7s to cast on and switched them to the 6s. It would have helped a lot, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly. At least I had the clarity to stop there, when I got all the stitches on the needles. I was in no state to work the first row of a 375 stitch "scarf". So, sometime this weekend I'm going to sit down in some peace and quiet, when I have a good hour to put aside, and get through that first row and get that lifeline put in. I know there is just no way I'm going to make it through this first chart without one, and if I want to make this baby, which I do, I'd better break out that waste yarn. I think you know what the chances are for me casting on another 375 stitches doubled are. I'll give you two guesses, and the first one doesn't count. ;)