How about a slice of humble pie with that shawl?

Four. That's the number of times I ripped out this shawl to begin anew. The first three, it had doubled in size by the 6th row and I couldn't figure it out. I tried posting to the High Fiber (Blue Sky Alpaca) group on Ravelry and someone suggested that maybe it was my yarn-overs. It wasn't the yarn-overs, but I did determine it was the purls. It seems in the last few months, while going around and around with my Pashmina Cowl (and not really needing to pay attention or make a stitch other than the knit) I forgot how to purl. I thought I was purling. But I kept forgetting to bring the yarn forward first, so I ended up with this weird twisted stitch that I just kept knitting into and through.

The fourth time, I sat down in front of my computer and watched a Knitting Help video on yarn-overs and purling, and determined that was my issue. For the fourth attempt, I used bigger needles (9's instead of the 6's I was using previously) because I was afraid it would take me forever to knit this up on 6's. After the 5th row, I decided it looked awful on larger needles and pulled it out again.

Each time I pulled it out, I thought to myself, 'Forget it, I'm just going to go with a straight knit stitch because I just can't handle knitting.' So glad I didn't listen to that inner voice. So glad I'm happy with imperfection. I went back to the size 6 needles, started again, and here I am.

As you can see, something isn't right. I think I lost my place and just kept going. My diagonals don't line up. I don't care. I'm not ripping it out again. You know my mantra...just deal with it.