casting off help please

[thriftychicken]

my mum is stumped with her knitting , ive tried to help but i am also confused !
the pattern has you knit along and then cast off the last five stitches , but this leaves one stitch at the end that you cant get rid of , a huge gap between the other stitches and that one . so , thats not right is it ?

can anyone tell me what to do ?

could she drop a stitch before it? Or cast off like this

You can't knot a row and cast off the last five stitches. You can cast off the first five stitches at the beginning of the following row, you can cast decrease 1 stitch at the end of a row (just by knotting 2 together), but not five stitches at the end of a row for exactly the reason you mention. Pattern is is wrong, your mum isn't

knit not, knot.

Does it not go on to say rejoin yarn at the remaining stitches? In which case I would take that to mean that you have to cut the yarn and thread through the one stitch left at the end.

I would have done what TheWoollybacksWife said.

You can cast off the last five stitches if you cut the yarn.

She isn't making a button hole is she? I 've done a few patterns recently that have you knit a few stitches, cast off a few stitches, knit a couple of stitches and then start a new row whereupon you knit the stitches you didn't cast off, do backwards loop cast on to replace the stitches you cast off and knit the remaining few (original stitches).

Obviously this gives garter stitch button band.