Chanting (my so called scarf)

Amongst other things, I'm currently working on My So Called Scarf. I love the look of the stitches (even though I'm making it in a thick and thin yarn) and I really can't wait to finish. I'm making it as a short but wide neck warmer and am planning to add a button or two to keep it crossed over at the front.

Thing is, I occasionally find that I've dropped a stitch and I find it an absolute nightmare to unpick these stitches!! I suspect I'm loosing my stitches on the purl row, where you have to kinda purl two together then purl the first stitch again before you drop the stitch off the needle - I suspect I must be loosing concentration and occasionally just puring two together.

I'm also finding this project quite hard on my hands, which isn't good. The fewer mistakes the better (for my poor hands).

I therefore seem to have taken up chanting to keep on the right track! I'm chanting the rhythm of the stitches in my head as I go along - in the hope that I'll realise straight away if I go wrong! Not sure if this means I'm starting to go insane. I suppose it's an extension of the counting that I usually find myself doing in my head - even if I don't have to count the stitches! When I do that, when I don't have to, and without realising I'm doing it, 9 times out of 10 I'll end up with a number that *isn't* the amount of stitches I'm supposed to have, so I'll panic and have to do a full recount - it'll always be something like 29 when I'm suppose to have 30.

I may put off worrying about it until I start doing out loud. Even worse would be if I start doing it out loud without realising...