I'm lost...oh so so lost

This is my oldest UFO. I started it long, long ago. I discovered the pattern through a KAL started by Anna from France, who became a dear friend and showed me all around Paris. I remember knitting on it when the 3yo was still a wee one in diapers. It seemed back then that each row took forever and I didn't really get what was going on. That was yards and yards and yards of lace ago. I have since then learned a tremendous amount about how lace works and why patterns do what they do. Consequently, I had high hopes that the project would be easy to pick up even though it had been months and months and the paper on which I'd been keeping track of what I was doing had disappeared.

Thankfully, I had the pattern saved on my computer. I highly recommend keeping multiple copies of any pattern you like. I've learned this the hard way (I once watched helplessly as a pattern fly out the window when I was knitting in a topless Jeep on the highway).

So, I sat down confidently with my newly printed pattern and the North Roe shawl and I looked at the knitting and I looked at the pattern and I looked at the knitting and I looked at the pattern and after repeating that several times I came to the sinking realization that I had no clue where I was. I finally figured out which row it was sort of. The problem is that the rows sort of repeat within the chart. Eventually I was able to narrow it down.

But that's when the trouble started. The chart is supposed to be repeated 4 to 6 times depending on how big you want the shawl. I had no clue how many times I'd already repeated it having lost that valuable piece of paper on which I had kept track.

Grumble grumble grumble

I started knitting and kept pondering about how to figure it out. I did eventually - once I'd repeated the chart seven times. I'm not going back. I don't care if this shawl is big enough for the Paul Bunyan. There is simply too much mohair in the yarn to frog.

I finally made it to the second of three charts. I did something drastically wrong on the second row that I discovered on the fourth row. Like I said, however, too much mohair for frogging and the thing is way too big for tinking. And so, I dropped stitches back to the problem and tried as much as possible to fix it by picking up stitches. I now have the correct number although I am a little concerned about how it will look when it's blocked. Maybe everyone will be so dazzled by the color they won't notice.