The pattern is like this:
[INDENT]“Cast on 10 sts.
Row 1: K1, K2tog, K5, Inc K-wise into next st, K1 - 10 sts.
Row 2: P1, Inc P-wise into next st, P5, P2tog, P1 - 10 sts.”[/INDENT]
I understand that for like the first row I’m supposed to knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 5, but then I have no idea what the “inc k-wise into next st” means, or what “k1-10 sts.” means.
Please help. It will be greatly appreciated!
Inc is ‘increase’ which is to add another stitch. It says to inc [B]in[/B] and stitch which usually means to knit in the front and back of the st (also called kfb). To do that you knit into the st and leave it on the L needle, then knit into the back leg of the same stitch. There’s a video for it on the Increases page.
So for the row you k1, k2tog, k5, kfb, k1 and you’ll have 10 sts, the same as you started with. The inc offsets the k2tog dec. The same thing happens on the next row -
Row 2: P1, Inc P-wise into next st, P5, P2tog, P1 - 10 sts."
P1, pfb (purl into the front and back of the next st) p5, p2tog, p1 and you still have 10 sts. the ‘- 10 sts’ is just for information to show that you still have the same number of stitches.
The “inc k-wise” means you’ll be increasing (inc) 1 stitch at this point. Do your instructions tell you which increase to use? If not, there are videos on this site showing how to do this. You may have to do a lifted-bar increase or a knit-front-and-back into the next stitch (which means you’d knit the next stitch, but don’t slip it off the left needle, then knit into the back leg of the stitch, then slip the stitches off the left needle). The "k1-10 sts means…the last stitch of the row is knit, which give you 10 stitches on your needle. That last number just tells you how many stitches you should have.
When a pattern says to increase IN a stitch, it’s usually always a kfb; the other increases are between stitches. So that’s one way to tell which to use; also the st count works out for this to kfb.