Huh?

Currently, I'm working on this pattern from loop knits.  It's the "West River Drive" shawl, and I'm making it with gold as the main color (though it has dark striations that are sort of steampunk brass) with black, mid-gray and light gray.

There's a mistake toward the beginning that no one will notice, but that will bug me always.  Knitter Truth, am I right?  So far, my shawl is going thusly:

Something else is happening, too, though.  The corner lower left is the beginning of the work:

Do you see what's going on?  My stripes are directly opposite those in the picture of the sample.  My "V"s point up, theirs point down.  And I cannot for the life of me figure out why.  Big Picture, of course, it does not matter a bit, but it's crazy-making nonetheless.