Houston.....we have a problem

There I was, quietly knitting along watching Law and Order, when the phone rang and I had to take a call in the middle of a row. (the nerve of someone wanting to have a conversation with me about perhaps the largest financial decision of his life while I'm KNITTING) Anyhoo, I put the needles down with half the stitches on one needle and half of them on the other needle. I'm still not clear about what happened when I picked them back up. All I know is that about 25 stitches or more came off the needles and those slippery little devils ran like the wind down that piece of work. It took me 2 HOURS to pick them up and get them back on the needles. Now my dilemma is that I know they are not on the needles correctly and I don't know how to fix it. It looks fine. But when I get to those rows and have to drop stitches, are they going to be ok? I doubt it. Because half of the stitches are supposed to be "knit through the back" and when I put the stitches back on the needles, all I know is that they have the knit side on the knit side and the purl side on the purl side. I'm sure they are not twisted correctly and I do not know how to fix that. Even if I frog the whole thing down past the disaster zone, I still won't know if I'm putting ALL the stitches back on the needles correctly....that could make it even worse.

This is a lesson learned. I was using cheap metal needles left over from my childhood. This slippery rayon yarn did not want to stay on those needles from the beginning. I knew all along that I should spring for wooden needles for this project but did I do it??? Nooooooo. I was too cheap! If I end up having to frog this whole thing you'll hear me screaming from wherever you live. Believe me.