Snail pattern help!

How-to Questions
1

I’m am amateur knitter and I started knitting the snail from HobbyCraft (the first result if you type in snail on the website, its a free pattern). I just finished row 38 but I don’t know how to proceed with the next rows. Row 39 say “k8, turn”. I’m fine with the knit 8, but I’ve never heard of turning the work in the middle of the row. I’m not sure how to go about it. Do I just knit the 8, flip the work and purl the rest if it (row 40 says purl to end)? This continues almost to the end of the pattern where I have to knit an amount and then turn it and purl. It then reverses (purl some, turn, knit the rest?). Im also confused about what this will even accomplish. Does turning it just make it look different? Does it increase or decrease the amount of stitches? Also, should I do the wrap like some youtube videos say? The pattern says nothing about that, but ive seen that if you don’t wrap (whatever that means) then you’ll have a bit of a hole in the work. Is that true? I haven’t actually watched any videos on the topic, hence my confusion on how to even proceed with the pattern. I didn’t want to accidentally do the wrong thing.

Thank in advance for the help and sorry for so many questions!

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Welcome to KnittingHelp!
Turning in the middle of the row in this pattern is part of a sequence of short rows. The short rows are part of shaping the snail shell. They won’t change the stitch number.
Do exactly as you think, turn from the right side to the wrong side and purl back over the sts you just knit.

You might try out the short rows as given without the wraps first. If you think you’d prefer to close up the holes, you can always re-do the section with wrap & turn or German short rows or some other technique to hide holes.
Don’t be afraid to try something to see how you like it. That’s part of knitting and you can always take it out and reknit.

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Ok, thank you so much! That really helps

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