I need help getting the right # of stitches.

around I am supposed to come out with 39 st and I am always getting

I'm not much of a crocheter. Here are my guesses.

I think "ss to join" sounds like you're supposed to make a slip stitch through something to connect it to the first sc in order to join a round; at that point you aren't creating a new stitch, you're joining two loops with a single loop and effectively decreasing a stitch.

"make 2 hdc in (next ch)" sounds like you're supposed to make them either in or around a short section of chain or slip stitches, like a granny square. But it might be that each slip stitch in a chain of them is considered to be one "ch". If that is so, then first you've made a chain of slip stitches, then you work back down the chain that you just created. To do that you chain one, then make 2 hdc in the next slip stitch that your hook wasn't already in. That seems to make a fan shape.

=Tamar