19 Lousy Stitches

Something happened to the yoke. I don't want to point fingers, but I suspect it had something to do with Mr., Mrs., or Lord Kitchener. You know, whichever one invented the stitch. Such a simple little stitch -- into one, out the next and into one, out the next -- yet somehow I managed to make half (half?) the graft look like garter stitch. I've been at this for hours now. I don't remember whether that was my 2nd or 3rd attempt. Somewhere along the line, I got the Kitchener part right, but did something untoward to the yoke itself. Perhaps on the 3rd or 4th attempt?

I think this is rather more of a blemish than Elizabeth Zimmermann had in mind when she warned of the "Schoenheitsfehler," as there is no beauty in it whatsoever. I thought I could sneak in 3 little duplicate stitches to hide whatever it was that happened.

At one point, I determined to ignore it and pick up the stitches for the neckline. It was the spasm in my fingers every time I passed the join that made me decide I'd have to rip, not just the neckline stitches, but the last 6 to 10 rows of the yoke itself.

Do I have to mention that I ripped the wrong half of the yoke the first time?