Another square, and only a minor miscalculation

Finished the second stars square this evening.  Squares are for the Spreading Love project.

Progress was going pretty fast, comparatively.  AND, a bonus, I am not making the errors that I was in the first version of this.  I am following with chart and maintaining the "sanity markers" along my needle, adding a 3rd marker that shows where the right side of the chart ends so I know I'm wrapping around to the first 9 sts on the left.


I thought for this one I'd shift the starting point in the stitches and rows so that more complete stars would show up in the final square.  I started on the *10th st in from the right edge* and on row 24 and planned to complete through row 118.  The first star square was 94 rows high.  Using two "ombre" yarns provides plenty of variation in colors and shading with far less loose ends to weave in.

At row 118, with about an inch left to work, I realized I was looking at the wrong numbers on my sheet when I started.  I began with row 24, but had actually planned to start with row 48 and continue through row 142.  Seemed I'd be at 12" around row 128.  So I kept working until I had points on the two mostly whole stars, around row 136.   Then I unraveled up to row 42.  Used a size G crochet hook to draw loops through the active knit stitches and bind off, making slip stitches.

Even after switching to size 6 needles from size 7, with a 54 stitch wide pattern I'm still a little too close to exactly 12" wide to finish off with a nice edge the way I'd like.  Perhaps next time I'll drop down to a size 5...although 5s are notoriously bad luck for me.  The only needles I've broken, three or four total, were all size 5.

*Nov 16, 2010 @ 2:42 AM ET - Edited above to fix the starting point info.  Made the same mistakes here as I did in my Ravelry notes.  I only partly understand why.  I was skipping the first 9 stitches which leaves 9 stitches to work before the sanity marker.  So instead of being clear and saying I started with stitch 10 instead of stitch 1, I guess I had 9 on the brain and kept saying I started 9 sts in, which is sloppy, vague and just wrong, really.  Otherwise, I misidentified the direction from which I was starting.  Clearly typical charts read right to left; I know this, and this is how I was using the chart, too.  Still I said 9 (wrong as just noted) sts in from the left edge.