Woe, Woe

I have been cruising along with my Noro Top-Down V-Neck Sweater and was excited to work on the neck and button bands. The first band went fine. I picked up the same exact number of stitches in the same exact way (pick up three, skip 1) but it was about 3 inches longer than the first.

So I frogged it and started again. It's still about 1-1/2" too long. I don't know what's happening? Do buttonholes through it off? I am flummoxed.