Pretty edges make you forget the pain of the picking up stitches

After about 5 false starts to get the 218 stitches roughly evenly spaced along the first side, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. By having four sections with 27 stitches and two sections with 28 stitches, I was able to get the full 218 in some semblance of order. Of course, the second side looks a little more "scrunched" towards the end. Somehow I spaced out my stitches a little too much at the beginning and had to cram them in at the end. However, I think after making some adjustments and the edging is complete, no one will be able to tell. Behold, the picked up stitches


438 picked up stitches to be exact 

Can anyone guess what is wrong with this? If you look closely, you will see that the working yarn is on the wrong side. (It is actually on the left side instead of the right side.) Ugh. I tried to ignore this and follow the chart backwards--joining to the shawl on the purl row. Although I think that this should work in theory, in practice, not so much. I knit about 20 rows and it looked wonky so I took it out. In addition, it turns out the "purl" row is not actually a purl row. I was only supposed to purl the first 6 stitches and knit the rest. Something else that I overlooked.

The lure of the pretty lace edging keeps calling to me so I will try again and tell myself that the pain will be worthwhile in the end. I guess I could just break the yarn and start again from the other side. Then again, there is a part of me that wants to see if I can make it work from this end.