Knitting charts and the Great American Aran Afghan

I'm taking a knitting class at my LYS, Yarn Gallery. It is The Great American Aran Afghan. There are twenty blocks in the afghan. Four more can be knitted as pillows or whatever. I've completed the first square, but I had to do it twice as the first one was too big. I have this problem with gauge. I went down one ndl sz., reknit it, and blocked it. Now it is the correct sz, 12" square.

For the next square, I have the first 6 knit rows done. That was our homework for the next class. Yes, I said homework. I used a ndl that was 3 szs smaller then the what was requested in the instructions. I'm working on a guage swatch for the afghan, so I can get a better idea what my guage is using several ndl szs.

The book has charts that can be used but they can be confusing. It will say to knit 12 stitches from chart A starting on row 1, knit 33 stitches on chart B starting with row one, then go back to 12 stitches on chart A but start on row 24. This can be confusing, so I copied the charts and laid them out according to how they are to knit.

So, now I have two weeks until the next class. I better get working on some of my other WIP's.