Intentionally dropped stitches

[Eltee]

I have a scarf pattern that requires several dropped stitiches. The pattern is a series of 16 rows. The directions for the 6th row say "Drop next stitch from needle and allow to unravel for 5 rows". In the 14th row you M1, so that the number of stitches stays the same over the series. My question is how to control how far the dropped stitches unravel. Won't they just keep going? What am I missing?

[suzeeq]

As long as you drop the m1 sts they only go down to the point where you did the m1. You can use a YO instead, same thing - that adds an extra st between 2 others where there wasn't one before, so the drop st stops there.

[Mamaoso]

It's fun when you drop stitches on purpose..suzeeq is right - it will just unravel to the m1.