I posted the same entry in LJ and someone replied, so FYI:
[It's tough to know without looking at it, but go back and count your stitches. First I'd check that your bobbles are in exactly one stitch--it can sometimes be easy to lose or gain a stitch when you're first making bobbles, but the bobble should "hang" off of just one stitch. Make sure there are 5 purls between bobbles--at P5+bobble=6 stitches, x7 repeats, + the 6 stitches at beginning and end, you should still have 48 stitches, with 7 bobbles from the repeat section and one in the 3rd stitch (from the beginning of pattern.)