Decreasing in the round

[DBNico2254]

I'm knitting a bowl that will eventually be felted. I have an issue with how the decreases go in the pattern and wonder if I'm doing something wrong. For the decreases, the pattern says:
R1: k2tog, k7 continue around; R2: k2tog, k6 continue around; R3: knit around; R4: k2tog, k5 continue around; R5: k2tog, k5 continue around; R6: k2tog, k4 continue around, etc.
My problem is that by round 5 I do not enough stitches at the end of the round to knit the number the pattern specifies. Should I be knitting together the last stitch and the first stitch as I begin the rounds after the first round? Does this make sense. It almost seems like if I did that I would have enough stitches. Plus it would close up the line of decreases that appears at the beginning/end of my stitches. I know once I felt the bowl that will disappear but for future reference for hats or whatever else it would be good to know. Thanks!

[Jan in CA]

R1: k2tog, k7 continue around;
R2: k2tog, k6 continue around;
R3: knit around;
R4: k2tog, k5 continue around;
R5: k2tog, k5 continue around;
R6: k2tog, k4 continue around, etc.

My problem is that by round 5 I do not enough stitches at the end of the round to knit the number the pattern specifies.

It's very hard to read when written in paragraph forum so I rewrote it out properly. Now if you look at it you can see that row 4 and 5 are the same. I think it must be a misprint because if you've been decreasing as written you wouldn't have enough as you found out. IMO it should be

R5: k2tog, k4 continue around;
R6: k2tog, k3 continue around, etc.

Each row has one less stitch in beween decreases. This is similar to hat decreases.

[DBNico2254]

Thanks Jan...I was trying to save space hence the way I wrote it out. Sorry about that. Anyway, yes I thought there could be an error but the pattern also notes that by repeating the same decrease 2 times, it helps to "flatten out the bottom" of the bowl. I was pretty certain that I did not want to start the next round by using the last stitch and the first stitch in the K2tog. It is easy enough to try doing it the way you suggested...afterall it gets felted and it is a bowl so either way it isn't really noticeable. I just wondered if I was doing something wrong or if there was a little knitters trick I didn't know about. Thanks again.

[suzeeq]

You get a flatter bottom when the decs are done every round. That's whay most hats have them every other round so the top is more rounded. So try it as Jan suggests and I think it'll come out righ.

[fatoldladyinpjs]

You can also lay something heavy in the bottom of this as it's drying, like food cans, to give it a more flat shape on the bottom. The rest of it you can stuff with newspaper and try to round the sides.