V Stitch Cardigan trouble (possible error?)

[RJH]

I'm working on an advanced cardigan pattern and am struggling with visualizing the instructions. I'd love some assistance with this one:

The pattern starts with the back portion of the cardigan and I'm having the worst time with the fourth row. I'm not sure if I'm doing it wrong or if the pattern is incorrect because I need to make an extra V-stitch in order to finish the row (17ptr when the pattern is saying 16ptr).

I'm making the second size (71 ch stitches for the foundation row). 

I've crocheted up to Row 4 in my photo.

After Row 4, it appears that I need to crochet back into the 2nd row and that's where I get lost. 

Row 6 confuses me because it says to make 22 stitches, and then the colon. I'm unclear as to whether or not this means to make 22 stitches and then to turn and repeat row 5 over and over until I reach the end? I really can't visualize what the pattern is telling me to do.

 

[Granny Square]

I'm a little disoriented as well.  What is the name of the pattern, and source - what I'm trying to find is a pic of the finished thing, to make sense of the shaping.  

Regardles, in general with that shape, going from the point you left off in row 4, down to row 2, you just...step off the edge.  Reach down and make that stitch 2 rows down.  You will be making a gently curved hill; I've seen this sort of shaping in other things but can't recall seeing it on a top (first time for everything I guess)

[RJH]

Here's the pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/pleated-cardigan-3

Frustratingly enough, there aren't any good shots of the back that show the area I'm working on.

Stepping down is what I figured. It just doesn't look right when I do it. Not to mention the extra stitch that I'm still confused about...

Edited August 23, 2019 by RJH

[Granny Square]

Wow, pretty but tricky.  Have you looked at the projects?  Some show the back raglan looking area with a gappy looking 'seam' that I could see happening by travelling down 2 rows.  One project (sazkk's) linked a solution re: row 5, I didn't look but maybe scouring the project notes will help you.  Sorry, this construction is a bit beyond me and apparently you're not the only one with questions.  (Good luck!)

[RJH]

I wasn't aware that I could look at other projects with a Ravelry account, so I started one. Thanks for the advice! 

I decided not to pay too much attention to the stitch count and the shape I'm coming up with seems to match the others. I'm pretty sure there are some errors in the pattern, as I frogged the whole thing and started over several times and kept coming up with the same stitch counts.

[Granny Square]

Glad to help, and good luck with the cardigan. 

There are a lot of cool things about Ravelry besides finding patterns, I pretty much always look at the projects while considering a pattern.  There's a feature where users can tag a another's project as helpful, and that will put a little life preserver icon in the corner of the project pic; you can search on just projects 'that were helpful to others' if you want.  Most are pretty good about adding their solutions/rewrites to actual or perceived pattern errors (take that with a grain of salt, but a often you'll see projects endorsing the corrections or even design extrapolations described in another project's comments). Users can rate patterns on an easy/difficult scale, and a 'like' scale, so it's a good sign when 1000 people have made a pattern and were happy with it, not so much when a few people tried it, ripped it, and rated it ugh!.