Glad you got it working. Creating "dial patterns" is a big part of telephony including VoIP that you usually don't have to think about. It's more applicable when using phone numbers of various lengths, such as 4 direct digit extensions within your organization, international calls, etc.
1 is actually the country code for the US, although sometimes you might have to dial "00" or "01" first to designate an international call, depending on where you're calling from. It sounds like Skype is trying to "be international", although you'd think that they would adjust your dial plan based on your country profile.