Bizarre knot

I've come across this kind of knot in Noro before, but this surprised me. The Rowan cotton has so far seemed predictable and uniform. I wonder what made this skein different. There were a few other small problems around this point, but this was the only one I thought looked interesting.

And what were you doing at one o'clock this morning?

I'm hoping that my inability to understand the next two lines in the pattern will be enough to keep me from repeating this behavior. At least temporarily. But look! A shoulder!
I didn't sit and read through the entire pattern until I was almost done with my ill-advised late night jaunt of knitting. Now that I understand when and where the collar will be worked I feel more confident that A) I have not already screwed up, and B) I will be able to complete this project.

That still leaves the mysterious directions:
With right side facing, join on yarn, bind off center 4 sts, k to end.

Perhaps an investigation into exactly how one is meant to join on yarn will provide a clue. At this point, however, my interpretation of this line is that I am supposed to start knitting backwards, towards the right, from the center. This feat seems much more easily accomplished by purling, with the wrong side facing front. Go ahead, call me crazy. Based on the assumption that all things appearing in a pattern happen for a reason, I think it is time to consult the forum at knittinghelp.com.

Hooray for pictures!

It's at the point where I have a hard time putting down my needles. I can tell that something exciting will happen in 10 minutes-no, 5! One more row and I can start decreasing!

Yeah, right, thinks the sweater, Keep on dreaming.

Let me interject here that these pictures were taken on a borrowed camera, which I clearly do not know how to use. The stripes below the garish red color are actually a pale pink, not a washed out cream. When I first glanced at the pictures I couldn't figure out what was making the colors so bizarre. The camera is fancy enough that I would be able to correct this problem were I knowledgeable enough to use the manual settings.

This is a closer view where you can see the split for the neck and collar:
I'm using Rowan yarn instead of Debbie Bliss yarn, but the colors are pretty much identical to the pictures in the book. Although I do keep catching glimpses of purple in the brown skeins...