Hello! Sorry to be an infrequent visitor, it is DS's birthday this week so I have been putting my creative efforts into The Cake.
The first two rows are okay as long as you can knit and purl (which you must be able to do if you can do stocking stitch). The little ribs come from alternating knit and purl between stitches, and also between rows, so that the 'v' shapes are stacked above each other, and the loopy rough bits are too. That makes the nice vertical lines. To knit a stitch, and then purl a stitch, you just bring the wool between the needles between each stitch, so that it is on the side you need. For the first two rows you have to do that between each and every stitch. If the last stitch of the row was a knit, it will be a purl when you start the next row so that you have the same 'look' of the stitch in the vertical column. That probably doesn't make any sense at all, it would be so easy to show you in person. Don't suppose you are near London?! I reckon a knitting group would show you in 5 mins, or look up rib stitch on YouTube.
As for the extra stitches, you must either be looping the yarn over the needle extra times (maybe when going from knit to purl) or not dropping the 'old' loop properly when completing a stitch. I would advise looking at some videos of rib stitch because it will make sure you are not looping over the needles between stitches... And as for the other possibility, you just need to check you have slid the old stitch off the needle properly each time.
It will be very fiddly at first but will get easier, I promise! Handling different yarns to make patterns with colours is more of a challenge, I hadn't done that before but learned through doing this. The technique is called intarsia and I figured it out with the help of Google. My first couple of attempts were a bit messy on the back and I also pulled the yarn a bit tight so the front puckered a bit, but I've got the hang of it now.
Poncetastic thread starts soon. I may join in this year but will probably NC as will be completely obvious to anyone who knows me! Might see a few people from here on it!