Back Where I Began, Again

Okay, so a couple of days ago I was knitting up a storm on the left front of my Paul Smith cardigan.  I hadn't knitted in days and obviously had forgotten that I was supposed to be following a pattern.  I was just about to start the red stripe, stopped to look at my work and then realized that throughout this knitting I'd forgotten about the little 2-stitch garter stitch border at the center front edge. 

I don't easily get rattled by such things but I admit that a couple of my favorite curse words passed through my mind.  There are 74 stitches in a row and I ripped back 32 rows, placed a stitch marker so I wouldn't forget again and reknit back to the beginning of the red stripe.  Pleased with myself at how focused I was and how quick I did the reknit, I laid the piece down to admire my work.

Then, I saw something that knitters dread.  At some point, while my knitting was in my yarn bag, the work must have moved around a bit and the stitches that were on the needles had stretched a little which left one row looser than the rest.  There was a distinctive line and it's been my experience that reknitting that row doesn't help.  So, I ripped back again, this time 36 rows.

I did the math:  32 rows of reknitting is 2,368 stitches and 36 rows is 2664 stitches for a grand total of 5,032 stitches.  I'm now back, ready to begin the red stripe, again.  Dare I hope that the third time will be a charm and that I'll actually be making forward progress?  Time will tell.