How to Decrease in Knitting - K2tog, SSK and Two More

Work along the row to the spot the pattern marks. Instead of putting the right needle into one stitch, push the tip through the first two stitches on the left needle at the same time, entering from left to right the way you would for any knit stitch.

That is the only difference between a knit stitch and a knit two together. Everything after this point is the same wrap and pull you already know. If the two stitches sit too tight to take the needle, ease them along the left needle with a fingernail before you go in.

Take the working yarn over the right needle counterclockwise, the same wrap as a plain knit stitch. Draw that loop back through both stitches at once, then slide the old pair off the left needle.

You have one stitch where there were two, and the row is a stitch narrower. Written down it is k2tog. It leans to the right, so patterns put it wherever a right-slanting edge is wanted.

Lay the swatch flat and look at the column where the decreases stack up. Work a k2tog in the same place every other row and the line of stitches tips to the right, because the second stitch of the pair ends up sitting on top of the first.

This is the fact the whole technique turns on. K2tog leans right. Run a fingertip up the line and you can feel the slope as well as see it.

The left-leaning partner needs the stitches prepared first. Slip the first stitch knitwise onto the right needle without working it, then slip the second one the same way. Both loops now sit on the right needle, turned the opposite way round from how they started.

No yarn gets wrapped here. Slipping knitwise is what twists the pair, and that twist is what makes the finished stitch fall to the left instead of the right.

Put the left needle back through the front of both slipped stitches while the right needle stays in them. Wrap the yarn counterclockwise, pull it through, and drop the pair off the needles.

That is ssk, slip slip knit. Because the first stitch of the pair lands on top this time, the new stitch leans left. Put an ssk at one edge and a k2tog at the other and both decrease lines angle in toward the middle.

On a wrong-side row you decrease with purl stitches. Bring the yarn to the front, then slide the right needle from right to left into two stitches instead of one. Wrap counterclockwise, pull through, drop the pair off.

That is p2tog. Turn the work over and it reads as a k2tog on the right side, leaning the same way. Its left-leaning partner is ssp: slip two stitches knitwise, return them to the left needle, then purl them together through the back loop.

To lose two stitches in one move, go into three stitches at the same time and knit them together. Wrap and pull through as usual. Three loops come off the left needle and one stitch goes on the right.

Take it slowly. Three strands are tight and the needle has further to travel, so loosen the stitches on the left needle first if they will not open up. K3tog is the easiest of the double decreases and it leans right, the same as k2tog.

Here are all four decreases worked into one swatch, four stitches in from each edge, with a paper tag naming each one. Look at the edges rather than the tags. Each technique cuts a different slope into the fabric.

Put the right-leaning k2tog on the left edge and the left-leaning ssk on the right edge and the two lines angle in toward the center of the work. That mirrored pair is what gives sleeve caps, hat crowns and raglan seams their even shaping.