Done with one... not so successful on the other

We spent the whole weekend finishing up the living room.  I am thrilled with this room.  I feel like I'm in a totally different house!  Here's a quick reminder of what it looked like before:

 

Note the DARK green walls, blue/grey cove, and dusty purple on the inside of the doorway.  Also, you can just see the edge of a weird section of wood paneling on the left.   What you can't see in this picture is that whoever painted this house used flat paint.  So you can see every fingerprint, smudge and scratch from anything or anyone that has ever come near these walls.   No one had ever filled a nail hole and the window and base moldings don't match the rest of the house.  

Here is that same corner in the middle of the re-do.  

Nail holes filled and sanded, moldings removed and wall partially removed.  Also, no more paneling!

And here it is as of last night at 9pm. 

New wall color is called Magnolia Spray.   It's just on the yellow side of cream with just a touch of peach.  It is so bright and clean.  We had such a problem in here with the dark green paint, even with our big bay window it was always dark in here.  We had FOUR lamps in here and with them all on, and all the kitchen lights on, it was still not light enough to read or knit comfortably.  Last night I turned the lights off in the rest of the house and turned only two lamps on (and the new lights over the new breakfast nook) and it was totally bright enough to knit.  Not that I was knitting...

Which brings me to my confession.  I haven't been knitting.  I have held it on my lap and stared at the chart.  I have held the first 20 rows and stretched and examined them.  But I haven't knit a stitch since I realized that every 4th line should have a little cable twist over 3 stitches and I wasn't doing them.  I am having such a hard time reading the chart, I don't understand why the chart couldn't be ONE BIG chart with all the stitches for the whole 36 row repeat.  I've never really done any cable projects before.  I did one pair of socks with a very simple cable over 4 stitches and I am currently working on a baby cardigan with a cable over 10 stitches.  I admit I am inexperienced.  But I am not dumb.  I can read a chart but why am I expected to remember so many repeats.  Is it so hard to print a complete chart?!   

See those sections of stockinette.  They aren't supposed to be stockinette.  

For the past three days, I've picked up the first 20 rows of the shrug and stared at it.  Comparing it to the chart.  Deciding which I want more; a finished, perfect shrug or a finished in a week shrug.  I think I have decided.  This is the first large garment I am making for myself (or anyone for that matter) and I do want it to be perfect.  What's teh point of spending $65 dollars on yarn, another $5 for the magazine/pattern and all that time if the finished product is shoddy at best?  I would accept a missed cable stitch in a sock.  I've looked past bigger mistakes than that, and generally I am a 'make it work' knitter.  But this is too much. 

I think at this point I have figured out all the possible problems I'll have with this pattern and chart.  I think I have the knowledge now to rip back and start over.  I will start over with the confidence that it will be the last time I rip back and cast on for this project.  

I am disappointed.  But I am also sitting in my bright new living room.  So I'll take the good with the bad this time.  

I'll leave you with some more pictures of the finished (but mostly unfurnished in these photos) living room.