My mom is the knitter in my life, but I hope, with the help of this site that will change to include me too!
Right now I have a question on mom’s behalf. It’s been a while since she’s knitted. When a pattern says Row 1, Row 2 etc does that mean row 1 goes from left to right then row 2 goes from right to left or do you knit all the way back and start at the beginning?
Make sense? I’m not sure if it does or not since I’m not a knitter at all. I hope someone can help!
When knitting flat on straight needles, reading a written pattern, each row is a single pass across the work. I don’t know if knitting from a chart is any different though, i haven’t been brave enough to try :-\
I think I get what you’re saying, but lets make sure 
This is the pattern in question at the moment, as I’m frog obessed. http://frogiezplace.blogspot.ca/2007/11/tree-frog-pattern.html
so it would go like this:
Row 1 knit left to right
Row 2 knit right to left
Row 3 knit left to right
Row 4 knit right to left
Row 5 knit left to right
By convention, when reading a charted pattern odd rows (RS) are read right to left and even rows (WS) are read left to right.
When working a written pattern, you just read/work the row as written.
You are ALWAYS moving sts from the left to the right needle, regardless of whether it is a RS or WS row. To do the next row, the needles but be swapped in your hands.
Thanks for posting the pattern, that is very cute!
I’m not sure how to answer your question though, i don’t think of it as left to right. I think of it as:
row one
turn work (switch which needle is in which hand)
row two
repeat
I’m an English knitter and that’s how I’d follow the pattern, for rows 1-5 you’d knit only five times across total, this is what creates the border in the picture. Each time you go across one needle it is considered a row.
Thanks Cathena, you made that so much easier to understand! I’m sure I was super confusing, not being a knitter myself.
You’re[I] always[/I] really knitting from right to left on every row when you read written directions. The only time you read from left to right is on a chart.
If you work each row as written, you’ll get what the pattern says it will be.
Thanks I think I get it now. Just one more thing, why on that pattern I posted the link for it skips rows? What do we do when it goes from row 7, 8 then 10. What happens to row 9?
Back at row 7, the instructions are for row 7 “and all odd rows, knit across”. So rows 9, 11 etc. are all knit rows.
Love to see a photo of this when you finish. It is cute.
Oh, you want me to read the whole darn pattern before asking questions? lol some days it makes me wonder how I manage to leave the house on my own! Thanks so much for helping me there.
Yea, it’s super cute. I want mom (MAYBE I’ll learn too with all the help on this forum!) to make all the cute dishcloths from that site into an afghan for me 
Oh, I know what you mean. There are days when I need supervision too.
Glad you’ve got it and I like the idea of the afghan. You could even start it yourself.
Don’t feel too bad about needed a babysitter. 
The pattern I’m doing has a similar instruction for all WS rows. When I read that I’m to repeat the 24 rows x times I sat there trying to figure it out…the pattern ends with row 23 and there is no row 24. Eventually the light came on. To think I’m allowed to play with sharp objects and very long strings. :roflhard:
I love the internet and the helpful people you can find when you have those kinds of moments where you shouldn’t probably be allowed to go outside on your own. Thanks for everyone’s help! When (not if) I start to learn how to knit I’m going to be full of poorly worded, maybe obvious questions. 
You don’t knit yet? Get your yarn and needles and cast on! You can always find help here.