swatch weirdness and colourwork techniques

so I'm swatching some yarn on smaller needles as the first prepatory stage to frogging and restarting the Maple Leaf Zippered Cardigan. I really don't want to but I simply don't have much choice - it won't fit as is, and the amount of screwing around I'm having to do for it to fit makes it look like a half-baked piece of junk. plus i'm running out of yarn which means when i get more i'll have the dye lot problem on top of the fitting issues. all of this adds up to a sweater that will get finished and never worn because i'll be ashamed to admit i knit it. So I'm reswatching on smaller needles (I disliked the looseness of the fabric when knitting at the suggested gauge for the yarn). Then I'll plunk the numbers from the swatch into my copy of Patternworks.com Sweater Wizard 2001 along with my current, proper measurements. That will generate a zippered cardigan pattern that will actually fit me (imagine that). Then I'll do the "2 rows from one dye lot, next two rows from the other, repeat ad nauseum" to make the dye lot issue seem a design element.

But before I do any frogging and yarn buying, first I have to figure out what the H### is going on with my gauge swatch. I did 6 rows of seed stitch (along with 6 stitches of seed stitch up each side of the swatch) so it will lie flatter when i bind off to do the measurements. I *thought* I had done 26 rows of stockingette (i was planning on 30). But with the swatch all lined up to do the next right-side knit row, i get twenty-SEVEN rows complete (including the one on the needles). Not 26 or 28, 27. WTH?

Also, can anyone identify what method my mom used to make the leaves?


Hers look nicer than mine from the front - mom's first, then mine




and don't have holes due to missed joins or a mess of ends to be accounted for at the end (unlike mine).

If someone can tell me what she did (best guesses are fine too) then I can look it up on knittinghelp.com