Frogging is happening!

I printed a pattern for a great looking purse, it's on the Joann.com website. I read over the pattern and gathered the materials. Tried to make a swatch, instructions for the number of stitches didn't match the actual number of stitches they said to chain. So I went to the pattern, figuring if I managed the first 3 or 4 rows, I could check my gauge at the point, it wouldn't be too much if I had to pull it out and start over with a different hook. BTW, it's usually 1 or 2 sizes smaller than the hook given for me. What's your usual, do you need to generally go up or down in hook size?
So it goes like this: read, stitch, stitch, read, stitch, stitch, working nicely.
Then I get to row 4: read, stitch, stitch, read, huh? frown, re-read, count stitches, frown, compare stitches made to reading, more frowning, pull out row 4. Read, stitch, stitch, read, stitch, stitch, read, count stitches, read, pull out row 4. I've got my own pattern going here. Read, re-read, think, re-read, get pencil with eraser, make notes, re-read, erase, make new note, re-read,...stitch, stitch, double check notes. Oh, I see what she's saying; the pattern designer (or writer, if they are different people)writes most of a complicated stitch combination, skips ahead to the next step and tells you what to do, then goes back to complete that complicated combination. She made if extremely more complicated that it already was! I have now penciled in re-wording on row 4, 5, and 6. But I am now understanding her language a little better. Back to stitch, stitch, hopefully with no more frogging.