Beware the Ides of March

There are some knitting techniques which I like to avoid. Like provisional cast ons. Not so much the part about casting on provisionally - that I've got - but the picking out the cast on to get the live stitches.

Somehow I always miss stitches, or lose them, or have to make them up somewhere else, so the beautiful symmetry the provisional cast on was supposed to ensure is lost. In this case, it's my Simurgh stole. I've finally completed the first half, but I've now spent an hour picking up stitches and picking out the cast on edge and I'm about 5 short. Grr. And "unzipping" the crochet chain? No, that never works for me. So annoying.

And I'm sure that, in this case, choosing a waste yarn the same color as my main yarn was not a great help. That fuzzy grey at the top is the waste yarn (leftover Trekking XXL, I think) which I am not yet done picking out. Almost there. Then I can see how easily findable my lost stitches are. Heavy sigh. Should not have undertaken this on the Ides of March.