And it didn't do a dang bit of good

After being as careful as I thought I could be while casting on 143 stitches, counting them again and recounting my count I still messed things up on my cowl. When all the bobbling was finished and it was time for me to M1, I found that I already had 144 stitches. This cotton yarn isn't twisted very tightly and sometimes I had trouble telling which were stitches and which were stitches where the yarn was really untwisty and I thought at first they were two stitches. I imagine during my counting I counted two well twisted stitches as one thinking they were untwisted yarn that had split a little.

Maybe I'm just really out of the know on such matters but I don't understand why I would be adding a stitch there anyway - there at the end of the second row just before beginning the third. Why not just cast on 144 stitches in the first place (did the first row that's just straight knit stiches have to be 143?)? Anyway I just charged into the body of the cowl and so far things seem to be okay. The work seems to be a little loose (and I normally think of myself as being a tight knitter) but maybe it's because it's floppy cotton yarn. I'm going to keep going on it and if it turns out great then great! If it's not so great I think I'll try the pattern again but with merino wool.

And I guess I'll eventually find out if my original stitch miscount is going to cause me a problem or not.

As for my hallway walls, they didn't need a second coat of paint today. And I'm getting use to the color. I think most of my problem is that they were a boring cream color before and now they're a snappy lemonish/buttery color and it's just freaking my eyes out a bit. Plus when the new floor is put down tomorrow (it's darker than the current floor) and I put the wardrobe and shoe cabinet back where they belong and rehang the pictures then it'll look different. I was all flippy about the kitchen when it was repainted - I thought the color wasn't quite right...it was just too bold - but when the new kitchen stuff was put in it took a whole different look. Now I think I got it just right.

I'll take pictures of my work on the Aibhlinn cowl when I have more done on it so you can maybe see the swirling rib pattern.