Cable Blues

I thought it would be fun to knit Samus from Knitty. (I'm doing it in Knitpicks Wool of the Andes - Blue Bonnet, rather than bright orange.) Looks mildly challenging - a little cable and the rest is stockinette. What could go wrong?

Oh, maybe just the cable -- the first thing in this cardi from hell. I have do this nasty 32 row repeating cable 9 times to make the lower band of the sweater. Each repeat is taking me a day or two, because I have to do it when I have the time to concentrate on the pattern and refer back to it a million times. I'm at the very beginning of the third repeat. I did something wrong, but I can't figure out what row I'm supposed to be on. I spent 3 hours last night knitting, then frogging (and repeating) rows 1 through 12 or so.

Here's my dilemma: Do I just frog down to wherever I can possibly find my way (even if it is the whole thing), or spend countless more hours trying to figure out where I am? Neither option is particularly attractive.