Blues instructions

Well, I'm working along on Blues and mostly it's going fine. I solved my yarn problem from the previous post and to my great surprise, I have a second yarn which fits nicely into the pattern. However, the line which says 'decrease alternately on the 7th & 8th stripe' leaves me confused. So I'm decreasing every 7th stripe by 2 stitches. The rest doesn't make sense. Does anybody have other suggestions for me?

gauge on Blues

I received Blues a few weeks ago and was horrified at my colour choice. I'm trying to solve it, but don't yet know how I will do it. Among other things I'm swatching the base colour with a strand of silk that goes very well. But I certainly don't get gauge. Is 60 stitches to 10 cm really possible? I'm even working on 2mm needles. Does anyone have a comment or suggestion?
Gillian