Crochet questions

[Jamie Brown]

I'm making some crochet slippers and on step 3: it says, -5: ch2, DC in each st around.

What does the -5 mean 

[bgs]

Well this is yet another pattern that is not conventionally written.  Did you give us the entire row / round exactly as written?  If you purchased the pattern contact the seller for an explanation.  If its free and on the internet you can post the link.  Sometimes we can figure it out with more information.  

[Granny Square]

Agree with Bgs that we encounter a lot of poorly written patterns here in the help section; some have been oddly ingenious when we figured out what it meant, but there's no point to be clever if no one understands you!. 

The only thing that popped into my head was 'skip 5' or possibly 'decrease 5 stitches into 1', but that is wild guessing on my part.  Is there a special stitches section by chance that explains what the minus sign means?

[bgs]

Or is -5: this designer's way of designating stitch count???  I have no way of knowing.

[Granny Square]

Yikes, "-5" for the stitch count at the beginning of a row would be super confusing.  (Jamie Brown, some patterns helpfully give you the stitch count at the end of each row to help you make sure you are on track, usually in parentheses, and sometimes with the stitches named if it isn't the same stitch all across--example:

row x: chain 1 (does not count as a stitch), *sc in next stitch, chain 1, skip 1 stitch; repeat from * 4 more times, sc in last stitch.  (6 sc and 5 chain spaces)

 

[bgs]

45 minutes ago, Granny Square said:

Yikes, "-5" for the stitch count at the beginning of a row would be super confusing.  (Jamie Brown, some patterns helpfully give you the stitch count at the end of each row to help you make sure you are on track, usually in parentheses, and sometimes with the stitches named if it isn't the same stitch all across--example:

row x: chain 1 (does not count as a stitch), *sc in next stitch, chain 1, skip 1 stitch; repeat from * 4 more times, sc in last stitch.  (6 sc and 5 chain spaces)

 

Granny Square I have a hard time thinking -5 is really a stitch count at the beginning of a round but hey we have seen some pretty uniquely written patterns. With that : there it almost looks like -5: belongs to a completely different step and depending on what preceded it I could see it being a stitch count.   :ch 2, DC in each st around is plausible for the instructions for an entire round.  But I am just grasping at straws trying to make sense out of it.

Edited March 27 by bgs

[Granny Square]

I was just throwing out how the stitch count typically appears in case Jamie B. hadn't run into that before and she didn't know what we were talking about.

Who knows, the -5 could be a misplaced cut/paste or typo the designer didn't catch.  

Jamie, what is the source of the pattern - is it on the internet, a book, or?  Is the designer name listed?