Pattern using term "tr"

Q. Dear Aunt Esther.
I am also fairly new to crochet but I have seen a nice pillow cover I would like to do. It didn't seem to be too difficult - until the numbers didn't add up anymore! Can you help?

Round 1 - 3ch, 11tr in ring, pull end to tighten ring, ss in 3rd chain. 12 sts.

Now my translation for that would be to make a ring, then do three chains and then to the 11 trebles into the ring with a slip stitch into the third chain when I come round. I end up with 12 stitches. So far so good.

Round 2 (and every alternative round) - 1chain and 1 double crochet around the stem of each stitch, ending with a slip stitch in the first double crochet. Still all good.

BUT then...Round 3 - chain 3, 1tr in same place as ss [2tr in each dc] to end, ss in 3rd chain. 24 sts.

So I'll go all the way round doing my 2tr into each stitch? - ie the edge of my crochet at this stage or is doing 1 tr into each dc different to my stitches all the way on the outside?

Either way - I'll end up with more than 24 stitches so I'm obviously going wrong somewhere but I just don't know where...

The pattern then increases to 48 stitches and I seem to end up with 72 stitches. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thank you for your time and keep up the good work! Best wishes Sonja

A. Hi Sonja, sorry it's taken me a few days to answer your question, but I wanted to take the time to read it carefully.

The way I'm reading the instructions, it sounds like you understand the first 2 rows, which ends up making a circle. On the 3rd row, it just sounds like you are making 2 tr in each one of the previous rows of double crochets. I would read that row like this:

Round 3 - chain 3, 1tr in same place as ss, [2tr in each dc] to end, ss in 3rd chain. 24 sts.

So the steps would be like this:
1. chain 3
2. 1tr in same place as ss
3. 2tr in each dc to the end
4. ss in 3rd chain

Since you are making 2 stitches latch onto every 1 stitch from the previous row, this should take you to 24 sts.Does this help any? Let me know! Esther