Can This Marriage Be Saved?

This is a close-up of one side of the short-rowed sleeve cuff for the sweater I love enough to call "my husband." Except he'll be sleeping on the couch tonight.
















And this is the other side.

I have a long list of things that are pissing me off today. In order of annoyance, we have:

1 and 2. These cuffs. I'm supposed to use short rows to create a bell curve of sort that will drape over the back of the hands. Problem is that the wrapped stitches look like absolute crap. There is no way, none whatsoever, that this passes the prancing pony test. Let alone passing my own personal version, the crawling pony with a magnifying glass test.

Anybody have any ideas on how to fix this? The stitches are wrapped as the rows are shortened, and the wraps are picked up as the rows are lengthened. What you see there are distorted stitches. Not wraps. Usually, I don't bother picking up the wraps, but this pattern called for it and I wanted a smooth fabric, undistorted by the "mock purl bumps" of unpicked-up wraps. I can't figure out what I did to distort the stitches, and I've knit these cuffs twice now with identical results. (Thereby proving that consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds.)

3. My camera -- I mean, look at those pictures. What the heck is going on there? Blurry, and not even close to the actual color of the yarn. I snapped dozens of pictures under several different lights/backdrops, and the two above were the best I managed. Look here for a more accurate view of the color.

4. The *&$%* cicadas. OK, they were an interesting diversion at first. But I'm over it now. I want them to shut up that infernal racket and, for pete's sake, stop flying into my car when I am trying to drive. They're going to make me crash. Into their beloved trees. With a firebomb.

5. Blogger. Ate two of my posts this weekend. I managed to save one (Note to Self) but had to sacrifice the pictures. Why does blogger hate me? (pout)

6. The DVD player which, for completely mysterious reasons, refused to play the movie I rented for tonight. That would be the movie I wanted to watch while knitting that breast cancer Shedir out of the Rowan Calmer which I couldn't show you because Blogger hates me. Anyway. This is a new DVD player. It should not be misbehaving like this. Plus, I really do just want to watch a movie and knit. I need it!

I know this is a grumpy post, but it's been that kind of day. I've had real problems demanding my attention today, not just the petty things on my list. Which makes it doubly insulting when the petty things go wrong.

Tomorrow will be better. It has to be. In the meantime, sorry to vent like this.

And seriously, can anyone tell me how to fix my husband's short rows?