I'm trying to knit a lace yoke cardigan for my baby and (stupidly) did not read the pattern beforehand. It's a bit above my skill level as I've only knit scarves and booties before but have been doing OK up until the beginning of this part of the instructions and now I'm having trouble understanding what I'm meant to do. I gave it a go and ended up with 7 less stitches than I was meant to have at the end and my wonderful Mum just undid it all back to the beginning of this portion but even she is confused.

Firstly, when it says "dec at beg of alt rows" (in the first part), does that mean: knit 2 together in the front of the stitch?

Secondly, the part circled in red..... if I decrease at the end of the knit rows, from my understanding, that will be where the K2tog is and be on the exterior of the garment?

My understanding is that in the first side, the decreases are done at the interior to provide shape for when the yoke is attached and so the decreases for the shaping should also be at the interior on the other side but I've read the instructions what feels like 1000 times and can't seem to make sense of them.

If anyone could please tell me where I'm going wrong and what to do I would appreciate it so much.

Can't understand pattern - Please help