Learn Basic Decreases to Shape Your Knitting

There comes a time when every knitter needs to learn how to shape their knitting. You can only make so many straight projects! Whether you’re looking to shape the top of a hat or the armholes and sleeves of a sweater, you’ll go far learning just two decreases: knit 2 together and slip, slip, knit, known in knitting language as k2tog and ssk.

The k2tog is usually considered the most basic, and it is really easy to do; just pretend two stitches are one and knit them together. This makes a right-slanting decrease and is fine for most applications. It’s not super prominent, and it’s usually what most of us default to when a pattern just says “decrease.”

SSK is a little more involved, but it’s not at all difficult. Slip two stitches as if to knit, then take the left-hand needle through the stitches from the front and knit them together. This makes a left-slanting decrease that is more prominent than a k2tog, but they are often paired for decorative effect in projects.

Here’s a quick video to show you the basics of both:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IvnVKK8UBA]

Do you have a preferred decrease? I’d love to hear about it.

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Why should the fireplace get all the fun? Instead of knitting stockings this year, why not whip up a pair of Christmas themed socks? These Christmas sock knitting patterns are lots of fun to make and you can wear them to holiday gatherings for years to come.

For our friends in the southern part of the world, there are the Christmas in July socks from the Kiwi Lodge – Kylie (Ravelry link). These shorty socks are covered in Christmas trees and have bright pink heels and toes for a tropical feel. There’s also an option to make a longer sock if you celebrate somewhere it’s colder.

Twin Stitches Designs (Ravelry) has a fun pattern with mix and match colorwork motifs you can use to build your own cozy Christmas socks. From the sample socks I see Christmas puddings, trucks hauling trees, Santa belts, ornaments and a couple of different borders. There may be more patterns included but the listing doesn’t say. Make a pair that matches or use different motifs on each foot for extra holiday cheer.

If you want to stick to Christmas puddings on your holiday socks, check out this cute pattern from Stone Knits. These lovely socks feature a band of puddings around the leg and a bit of holly by the toes.

These vintage holiday light socks from Grey Owl Knits by Sarah are classic looking and lots of fun at the same time. I love this color combination but of course you can make your lights and stripes whatever colors you like or have on hand. They’re worked using stranded knitting.

And if you’d like even more of a mix of patterns for your socks, try Barbara Ceglédi’s Christmas Chaos socks, a free pattern on Ravelry. The pattern includes 25 little motifs you can choose from, ranging from snowflakes and Christmas trees to elf hats, reindeer and hearts.

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