Trying to understand Knitting instructions

[Valentine13]

Hey everyone! This may sound like a stupid question for you all who are awesome knitters, Im starting baby booties, and the instructions for the first part of them is this


cast on 26 sts and knit 1 row then cont. in garter st, decreasing every 2 rows as follows; *K1, SK2P, knit until 3 sts remain, k2tog, k1* rep from * to * every two rows 4 time-16sts. work 1 row straight then shape.


the way i understood it is:

after i cast on, i knit 3 rows of garter stitch,
then k1 sk2p,
2 rows garter,
k1 sk2p,
2 rows garter,
k1 sk2p,
2 rows garter,
k1 sk2p,
3 rows garter

am i on the right track or have i just completely misunderstood the instructions? thanks in advance for any help!

[knitcindy]

Hey everyone! This may sound like a stupid question for you all who are awesome knitters, Im starting baby booties, and the instructions for the first part of them is this


cast on 26 sts and knit 1 row then cont. in garter st, decreasing every 2 rows as follows; *K1, SK2P, knit until 3 sts remain, k2tog, k1* rep from * to * every two rows 4 time-16sts. work 1 row straight then shape.


the way i understood it is:

after i cast on, i knit 3 rows of garter stitch,
then k1 sk2p,
2 rows garter,
k1 sk2p,
2 rows garter,
k1 sk2p,
2 rows garter,
k1 sk2p,
3 rows garter

am i on the right track or have i just completely misunderstood the instructions? thanks in advance for any help!

The way "I" read it is that you do the decrease row every other row. So you would do this:

Cast on
Knit 1 row regular
Decrease row
Knit 1 row
Decrease row
Knit 1 row
Decrease row
etc........ until you end up with 16 sts

hth, knitcindy

[salmonmac]

Yes, I agree. Every 2 rows would be a decrease on every other row. You'll do 5 decrease rows total(decrease 10 sts altogether).

[suzeeq]

One row in garter or stockinette or any stitch is just one row. So you cast on, knit one row, then knit the next row with decs, knit another row, then knit another dec row, and so on until you have 16 sts, then knit 1 more row. The dec row is still in garter stitch because it's knit. Don't forget you dec at the beginning and end of every other row, not just at the beg.

[Valentine13]

Thanks guys! makes more sense now

but someone brought it to my attention that if i follow the instructions that i end up with 11sts at the end instead of 16sts. any truth to that? im a bit weary to try it myself and figure it out because ive auready had to start over more times then id like to admit, and i want to start it off right this time! They said to knit the dec rows in SKP, not quite sure of the difference that would make in the end product.

I got the instructions from a book.

[suzeeq]

No you would end up with 16 stitches. You begin with 26 and dec 2 sts 5 times which decreases 10 stitches. As I said, don't forget to dec at both ends of the dec rows, not just one end. You do a dec row, then a plain row and alternate them.