Zoe has issues

I'm having some issues with this pattern. I've emailed the designer, but no reply yet (though I'm sure she will). and she's made suggestions/corrections within the original pattern now.

On the round after the nose, I wasn't sure how to work around the 5 hdc cluster, which wasn't really done like a bobble (which would leave you with one stitch at the top to work through on the next round), but I liked the way it looked being "open" underneath, so I just did a sc in the first hdc, then moved on to the next sc.

Later on the head, Rnd 18 should read something like: *1sc, 2sctog* repeat 6 times (12). Sure, if you just do 6 decreases, you'll end up with only 12 stitches, but you won't have finished the round, and all the decreases will be to one side. If that was intentional, I'd like a little nod to that in the directions, you know?

Also, at this point, it's hard to put the eyes on through that little hole, so I ended up ripping it back a rnd or two to save my fingers. Stuffing, you can do through a small opening, but inserting the eyes is hard enough without limiting yourself to only one digit working from the inside. I made myself a note to insert eyes and stuff the head before Rnd 18. I'll embroider lashes and brows later.

(I'm feeling neutral on the whole slip stitch rounds when changing colors thing. It looks nice, but it also makes it a bit crowded when you're working the next round.)

On the skirt, if you want it to look like the picture, Rnd 28 should just have 1 sl st in between each picot, instead of the 2 you would work if you do repeats from the start of the rnd. It ended up one short, but you can't tell, and I liked the spacing of the picots better this way.

Then, when going back under the skirt to work the undies, you only have 24 stitches to work in, not 30. (I took a picture so you could count them...go ahead...)

I worked that round of 24 sc, then repeated Rnd 25 to increase to 30 before starting to split for the legs.

Speaking of splitting for legs, since you work through 2 across the center, you end up with only 14 stitches on the first leg. So I did the same on the second, as I finished the first round (and I did start with a fresh piece, I didn't run a long tail out to work with), I worked the last one together with the first on the second leg.

Which is where I am now, contemplating working the shoes in one piece with the legs so as to avoid seaming. I get why you'd want to start those from the bottom. But since I know this nice way to finish off, with it looking almost identical to the start, I think I can make it work this way.