Lace Expectations

Am I dense? I'm on my second pattern with lace and the repeat doesn't make sense. Either the designers left two unnecessary stitches in BOTH times or I'm just reading these things wrong. The little preemie hat doesn't say to place a marker but does speak of the pattern in "rounds" so I know I'm not mad. I've ripped it out and started over (this time with Clive Owen and Jackie Chan) and got the same result. My biggest puzzlement came when I was left with three stitches to go. According to the pattern, my next move was k3tog. No problem right? Oh yeah, what about the general directions for the row which read "end with p1"??? Where do I get the extra stitch? When you look at the area where the rounds begin, there is an awkward flat area.

I went back over the entire row and checked to see if I had made a mistake. Nope. I can't explain the math part, it hurts my brain. The only thing I can figure is the original directions were written to be knitted on circular needles and someone tried to add stitches at each end to make it a flat pattern? That wouldn't work. Every other row would be backwards. It would explain the extra stitches - they would be used for seaming. Since the pattern is a wavy thing anyway, I'm gonna mush on and see what I got. "end with p1" be damned.

Now my problem is I have one fewer stitches than what I cast on after the k3tog decrease row. The pattern doesn't state any reminders like "54 stitches now" or "53 stitches on the needles". I'm moving on and if the next row comes out one short I'll "M1" and fudge it next row. It's a teeny tiny hat puffy and hopefully an error will get lost in the folds of the waves. I could chuck the whole thing and use another pattern, but now it's a matter of knitterly honor.

But I'm liking the lace part.