I use to do a lot of thread crochet. I was an avid follower of the original Annie of Annie's Attic Crochet. I never count the stitches on the foundation row only the second row. I used a separate skien ( or cut and make a small ball of the thread) to make the foundation row and separate skien to start the second row. If I need more stitches in the foundation row it's easy to add more or easy to ravel out the row if I have more then I need. This makes the foundation row so much easier. Who wants to count stitches over and over on that first row especially when doing thread crochet!