Plain English campaign for knitting patterns

Well, last night was not so bad. I should give Emma more credit really! She did wake up at about 8.30 but just for a cuddle. I brought her downstairs, and she fell asleep in my arms about 10 minutes later. I love it when she does that!

When I was in town today I finally went inside a really cute little knitting shop I found recently. I can knit, but haven't done it for a while. I wanted to knit some booties for Emma to keep her feet warm when she is in the wrap, but all the patterns I have found online are for newborns and she has really big feet. So, I went in and this absolutely lovely little old lady helped me out. I bought a pattern, some wool, even the right sized needles! (I normally just make do with the needles I have, and then wonder why it doesn't look right).

So... I got started this evening after Emma went to bed. A pair of bootees can't be that difficult can it? Well (hope I am not breaking any copyright here) check this out:

Using 2 3/4 needles and C cast on 51 st. (C is the contrasting colour, M is the main colour).

1st row: K1 *P1 K1, rep from * to end
2nd row: P1 *K1 P1, rep from * to end

OK... I am fine with that bit... so we are 2 rows in and then it all starts to go a bit wrong...

Cont in rib as set and work (2 rows in M 2 rows in C) 4 times then 2 rows in M.

Right then...

So how many rows in total is that? How many stripes should I have? (To make matters a bit worse, I am ignoring the stripes and only using one colour). Each stripe should be 2 rows. So, should I do a main colour stripe then a contrasting stripe 4 times, then do an extra main colour stripe at the end? So this should be a total of 10 stripes, including the first stripe in rows 1 and 2? So that is 20 rows? This is how I read it anyway!! If there are any knitters out there, please stop me if I am completely wrong!

I am a big advocate of Plain English for instructions. Have a look at the campaign if you are not familiar with it: http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/ I completely understand that knitting instructions need to have common abbreviations, but that is just ridiculous!

I thought that bootees would be a simple thing to start with. Maybe I should stick to scarves!

We are driving up to Ripon at the weekend to visit Brett's parents, so this is supposed to be something to keep me quiet in the car. But if I am stuck after 2 rows I am not holding out a lot of hope...