How to Decrease Stitches in Knitting

A little while back I shared my post about how to increase knitting stitches, so now it’s time to take them away.

There are a lot of different ways to decrease stitches, just as there are a lot of ways to increase stitches, so my collection isn’t exhaustive, but it does cover the most common knitting decreases you are likely to encounter as you begin your knitting journey.

For example, knit 2 together. This is probably the most common decrease out there, and if you don’t care how it looks you can use it most of the time. It’s often paired with a slip, slip knit or SSK, though, because a knit 2 together leans to the right and the SSK leans to the left.

This pair of decreases looks great when you want to emphasize the decrease line (say, if you’re working a raglan design from the bottom up) or if you want the decreases to point inward on each side, as when you work decreases for a sock toe.

While the SSK is by far the most common left-leaning decrease, you can also try out a slip 1, knit 1, pass the slipped stitch over, which is not quite as prominent in the knit fabric (to my eye, anyway, it doesn’t seem to stick out as much) so it’s a great one to try.

And of course there are double decreases you might use in lace or other situations where you don’t really want a decrease that leans in either direction and you need to take out two stitches at once.

All of these are easy to do (though I will admit to always having to think through which decreases lean which way, just like I have to look up how to make a make 1 left or make 1 right each time) and you can find a quick tutorial for each in my guide to knitting decreases over at Our Daily Craft.

Do you have a favorite decrease? I’d love to hear about it!

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?