vale veil?

Am I going to make it on this one? That is, am I going to make it at all? It's over a month ago that I said I was going to review my progress on the A Knitted Veil in Peruvian Wool (it's officially called A Knitted Veil in Pyrenees Wool but I'm using an alpaca blend, so ...)

There are all sorts of things holding me back on this one. To begin with, I've made a real mess of my photocopied pattern with notes scribbled everywhere; well, not notes actually but various calculations as to how far through it I am and how much there actually is to go. I need to make another copy and start with a clean slate - task for tomorrow.

Why the intentness on how far through it I am? Well, I'm always intent on that and because now that I have finished the decorative border there are just miles and miles of four-row lace pattern repeat. How many miles? About 135 rows worth.

And this particular lace pattern bothers me because on the third row there is a k2tog that crosses over the six-stitch repeat boundary. Huh? The lace is a six-stitch repeat, that is, you knit the same six stitches all the way across the row. To keep this all in line I have placed a marker every six stitches. However, on the third row of the pattern the six-stitch repeat is offset by one stitch, requiring me to k2tog across the marker. A pain because it necessitates taking out the marker and repositioning it thirteen times on every fourth row. I'm trying it with split ring markers but it's excruciating knitting and I don't know whether I can face another 16 miles of it (ok, 135 rows). Complication of course is that I love it. The lace is beautiful, the yarn produces a great fabric and I so want to try a knitted on edging.

A possible fix is to simply take out the markers but that would require that I trust myself to read the lace and know where I'm up to. Hmmmm? Might be worth a try but I'll put in a lifeline first.