Diagonal Striped Throw

First, it should be stated that before I beagn crocheting, I tried knitting. My first project was a knit stitch-only diagonal afghan. I hated the way it turned out, because two of the diagonal corners were hideously disproportioned. It looked like Dumbo's ears got magically attached to two corners of my beautiful blanket. I assumed I miscounted or miscalculated somewhere. Who can keep track of all those little rows of stitches?

So, I picked up crocheting, where keeping track is much easier, and it's also much easier for me to count the stitches. Plus, so far everything has come out more or less straight. Until now.

Enter the Diagonal Striped Throw from Lion Brand Yarn. I loved the look of this: classy and thick. I picked out Homespun Gothic and Tudor, and started to work. Everything seemed fine until, to my horror, the day of completion wherein I found out- yep, you guessed it- wonky diagonal corners. Now, I will swear to you, I did everything exactly as I was supposed to. I made a gauge swatch, which came out on the nose. My tension was perfect, each row increased or decreased exactly the right number of stitches and everything was lovingly counted and precise.

So what the heck happened? I have no idea. Worse, I can't find out anyone this has happened to, yet it's happened to me TWICE, with two entirely different styles of yarnwork! (In case you're looking, it's the lower right and upper left corners of this picture. I admit to some sneaky repositioning to make it look normal for the shot.)

Still, it's warm and soft. I guess I'm keeping this one, because I'd feel horribly guilty giving it to some unsuspecting victim.