Stuck on decreasing on welcome mocs booties.

How-to Questions
1

Help! I’ve been working on these booties called Welcome Mocs by Kate Oates. Ive completed the sole and picked up stitches for the upper part on 5 DPNs pattern says:
Work back and forth in St st for 6 rows
Decrease row (RS): k1, ssk, knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
Work decrease row every RS total of 5 times
Purl 1 WS row

Should I have picked up on only 2 needles? If I’m on 4 dpns aren’t I always knitting RS? I actually messaged the designer and she said I should be knitting flat on the decrease row but I can’t get my stitches all onto one needle? I’m so confused and I’m anxious to get this project done as it’s a gift. Can someone help?

2

Welcome!
Yes, you should have the picked up sts on 3 or 4 dpns. But you should be working back and forth on those dpns. The patterns says, “Work back and forth in St st for 6 rows” and that means to not join in the round with the RS facing.
Knit across one dpn then across the next and continue to the last dpn then turn and purl across all the dpns to the beginning. You’ll have an opening where the turns are. You can see it in the photos from this project:
https://www.ravelry.com/projects/Celeryknits/welcome-mocs
It looks like the turn is at the tip of the toe.