I got to the end of row 4 in my repeat on the linen cover I'm knitting where the instructions say "k to last 6 sts", so I got to the last FIVE sts and said to myself, "Wait a minute..." Go back and count... (I always count by 3s and when I get to 30 start over.) The cover has 96 sts, so it sounded something like "....24, 27, 30. Umm... 3... 5?" I finally found the elusive dropped stitch about 12 rows down. Arghhhh!
The good news is that linen is so much softer to knit once it's been worked previously. I have been seriously contemplating ditching the whole project and selling the yarn that has me so confounded.