Hi Nanci,

I hope someone more knowledgeable than I am will answer your post, but
I'll share my ignorance for what its worth!

1. I wonder if your swatch was big enough? You need a good inch of
knitting on all sides of your 4" squre you are measuring. And I'm
surprised that you got such a fine gauge, knitting on a midgauge
machine; that's the sort of gauge I would be seeing on my standard
machine. Did you wash and block your swatch before you measured?

2. If it were me, I wouldn't remove the ravel cord and waste yarn
before I finished off the edge. They are there to keep your live
stitches from unraveling, and so I would do a hand-knit or crochet
bindoff, then remove them when the live stitches are all nicely dead.
I'd do the same thing for a cast-on situation.

You can try casting on with an e-wrap or latch-tool cast -on, then you
wouldn't need the waste yarn etc. I like to use it anyway, so I can do
a crochet edging, and someday when I'm a more experienced knitter, I'll
try doing fancier things! But I am just creeping at this stage. Best
wishes!

Peggy in NC