Knitting Instructions... Help!

Hi all, I stumbled across this forum by complete accident after looking for help with a project.

I found a wonderful pattern on Ravelry for a full-length coat/cardigan called the Louhi Coat by Tuulia Salmela, and I see that it has been mentioned on this forum a couple of times but none of the posts were able to assist me. I haven’t started knitting yet because I have been agonizing trying to decipher it, and I’m literally banging my head against the wall trying to understand this incredibly complicated pattern. I tried emailing the author of the pattern but I haven’t gotten any responses yet and it’s been over a month; alas after numerous Google searches, hundreds of youtube videos to help explain some of this, I turn to you all for help.

The pattern first starts where you knit the cuffs of the sleeves, and it says to cast on 26 stitches and repeat the cable pattern in chart 1 3 times. The pattern is a Viking-style cable that spans across 24 rows. Then it says to pick up 52 stitches in 3 sets and to place markers in between each set (17, 18, 17) with the 18 stitches in the middle being reserved for another cable pattern used for the rest of the sleeve. If I’m reading this correctly (and please let me know if I am not) the cable pattern for the cuff is 24 rows and it says to repeat the pattern 3 times which if my math is correct would give me 72 rows, then pick up 52 stitches along the edge to continue knitting the sleeve. Did I miss a decrease somewhere? How did it go from 72 stitches to 52 stitches?

The second part I’m stuck on is the decrease stitches for the sleeve cap at the top of the sleeve.

Sleeve cap: When knitting R24 (of chart 2) for the last time, begin
decreases for the sleeve cap. BO in both ends 1 x 5 sts every row.
Decrease 2 x 1 st every 2 rows, 2 x 1 st on every row, 2 x 2 st on
every row. On the next row, BO 17 sts in both ends. You will be on
R47 in chart 2. Continue according to chart 2, every st of every
row is included in the chart. After the last row, cut yarn and pull yarn
through all sts.

I don’t understand the # x # every # rows. Can someone please explain this?

Any help, or advice anyone can provide would be useful. Thank you all!

If you would like to reference the pattern, here is the link: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/louhi

Welcome to the forum!
The sleeve cuff is knit for 72rows. That cuff will wrap around the wrist with one side edge at the hand and one side edge near the forearm. The cast on and bind off will be seamed together.
The 72sts are picked up along the forearm edge in order to knit the length of the sleeve. You won’t be picking up one stitch per row end but picking up a couple of sts and then skipping a row.

The directions for the sleeve cap are worked at each end of the row. The bind off has to be worked at the beginning of a row so you’ll have to turn and work it at the beginning of the next row. Bind off 5sts on the first row, call it row 1. Dec 1 stitch on rows 3 and 5, 1 stitch on rows 6 and 7, 2sts on rows 8 and 9 then bind off 17sts on row 10. Of course these are the decreases at one edge and you’ll mirror them at the other edge.
I don’t know what the chart rows look like but it seems to me that that’s only 10-11 rows not from rows 24 to 47. See if the stitch count makes sense here.

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