I’m frustrated with a pattern called diamond argyle dishcloth.the first two things.CO 48…purl wto rows for border
Row 1: purl 1 row
here’s the killer
Row 2: P2 k10 *k2tog yo k9 rep to p2
I know how to do this, but I don’t end up with 48 stitches…I’m a beginner kinda, so I’m up for correction, but darn, if I count the tog as 2, I wind uyp with 50 stitches…if not, I have 47
this is not just doing it, it is doing it on paper, still comes up wrong
Help, please…
Sugar
The k2tog is a dec so you lose one, but the YO is an inc, so that balances out the dec. To YO you just wrap the yarn around the needle, so for this repeat you k2tog, wrap, k9, k2tog, wrap, k9 etc and there will only be the dec st and 9 knit sts between the holes, not 10 knit stitches.
what about the p2 at the end?..when I repeat the available amount of times, there are either more or less than 2 stitches left to purl.I would go ahead and just do it, but then when I turn it around, the next row will be off pattern…
Sugar
Well, lets take a look at how the st counts work out…
P2 = 2 sts plus
k10 = 12 sts
*k2tog yo k9 repeat = 11 sts times 3 is 33 and that is 45, plus
p2 = 47 and there’s where your problem is. Do k1 before the p2 and that will equal 48 sts. I think they left it out of the instructions. A pattern is usually balanced and it begins with a p2, k10 so should end with k10, p2. If you do one more knit after the last k9, that gives you k10 before the p2.
OK!..I will definitely try that,…am curious to see if the rest of the rows are balanced to 48 st…thanks somuch, I was glad to see I wasn’t crazy 
Heh, well. I started out to point out where you were going off then realized it was the pattern, so no, you’re not a crazy knitter who can’t read a pattern…