Weldon's Eighth Series - The Crochet Medallion

My Eighth Series project is the crochet medallion. Looking back, I should have taken a closer look at the illustration before I chose it.  Here's the illustration:

Some things in the illustration match the pattern and some don't. The edging on the left side of the illustration has something very odd going on with the last row. That definitely wasn't in the pattern. See the odd spacing of the groups of three double crochets in a middle row? That was in the directions.

The pattern suggests a thread that is probably the equivalent of size 10 thread and an appropriately sized hook. I used size 3 to make this a little bit bigger so it's more of a doily than a medallion.

Here are the directions I wrote out with the US terms and my notes and changes and notes added in red as I went through this.

Chain 8, join (I did a magic circle)

1. 24 sc in circle, join
2. 6 chain, 1 dc on the second sc * 3 chain, skip 1 sc, 1 dc on the second (next) sc stitch, repeat from * and at the end of 3 chain and join into the third chain with which the round began; fasten off (don't fasten off). (12 dc)
3. (Slip stitch in first stitch instead of cutting and starting again, chain 1). Recommence with 1 sc in the center stitch of three chain, 3 chain and repeat.
4. (Chain 3 - counts as first dc) 1 dc on every stitch (48), join
5. What is going on with this row? The directions don't look like the photo at all. I'm going to try to match the photo instead. They say to; 4 chain, 1 dc on the second dc *2 chain, cotton over the needle and insert the hook in the same stitch as  dc is worked into and draw the cotton through, cotton over the needle and draw through 2 loops on the needle, cotton over the needle and insert the hook into the second dc of last round and draw the cotton through, cotton over the needle and draw through 2 stitches on the needle, cotton over the needle and draw through 3 stitches on the needle, repeat from * and join and fasten off at the end of the round.  Row 5 is now; chain 5, skip 1 dc, sc in next around. Row 5a is slip stitch in the next 2, *sc in the middle chain, chain 3* repeat from *
6. All in one stitch of the previous round do 1 dc, 1 chain, 1 dc, 1 chain, 1 dc. Miss three and repeat; the third time of working, same, miss four stitches instead of three, that you may bring 18 groups exactly into the round, join at end. Wait, who wrote this and why would you make this non-symmetrical with 18 groups that don't line up with the same groups before? Are you a psychopath? I'm doing this so it lines up. I get 24 groups.
7. Chain 3 to stand as dc, work 1 dc on each stitch of the last round and increase a stitch on every third group to bring 96 dc in the round, join and fasten off. I get 120 without doing any increases.
8. Recommence, * work 3 consecutive dc, catch the last dc back into the first with a slip stitch, 7 chain, 3 consecutive dc caught back in the same way, 5 chain and repeat from *, join at end and fasten off
9. 1 sc in the center stitch of the loop of seven chain, 2 chain, 1 dc in the second stitch of the loop of 5 chain, 2 chain and 1 dc three times in next stitch, 2 chain, 1 dc in the third stitch (this should be the fourth stitch) of the same loop, 2 chain and repeat to the end of the round, join
10. 1 sc on the sc of the last round, 4 chain, 1 sc in the loop after the first dc stitch, 4 chain, 1 sc in the next loop (after the 3 dc group), 4 chain, 1 sc in the next loop (no. 1 sc in the sc) , 4 chain, 1 sc in the next loop, 4 chain and repeat; join at end and fasten off.

This was definitely not well written. The illustration didn't match and had some very weird edging.  Here's what my symmetrical finished version looks like. I blocked to 10 x 10 inches. I like mine better than their illustration.

Rating:
Is the pattern easy to understand? No 0
Does it look like the illustration? I'm not sure if it was supposed to. 0
Would someone use this? 1.0
Did I enjoy making it? Yes, it was so laughably weird that I did enjoy it and since I used size 3 thread it made it easier to see and redo things that weren't working. 1.0

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