Make Prettier Decreases with This Tip

Knit 2 together is the standard for a right-leaning decrease, and it’s usually paired with a slip, slip, knit, which leans to the left.

But ssks are ugly. Some people improve the situation by slipping the first stitch as if to knit and the second as if to purl, but they’re still kind of ugly.

The knitter behind YarnSub has come up with an alternative called the slip, twist, turn decrease, which involves slipping one as if to knit, slipping and twisting one, then turning to the back of the work and doing a funky purl 2 together through the back loop.

It’s fiddly (the post calls it “tricky,” and it took 13 steps to explain it) but I’ve got to admit those decreases are lovely.

Would you try a different decrease for the sake of prettiness? I’d love to know if you try this one what you think of it.

[Photo via YarnSub.]

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Brioche knitting, also sometimes known as English rib, is a popular way to add a lot of texture to knitting projects. It can be a little intimidating when you’ve never done it before, but once you get the technique down it’s lots of fun to do. And it creates the squishiest, warmest fabric, so it’s great for fall and winter accessories like these.

Mirella Moments has a whole collection of English rib knitting patterns, including the hat pictured here, a headband and an infinity scarf.

These would be super as gifts to knit now and have on hand for the holidays. You can knit all three and give them to three different people, or gift them all to one person, or keep them for yourself. No one is judging here.

All of the projects use worsted weight yarn but they come out looking chunky because of the knitting technique, which involves yarn overs that are worked together with the next stitch on the next round so there’s not a visible hole, it just makes the fabric really stretchy.

You can practice working the stitch flat if you like, but it’s not any more difficult to do in the round. If you’ve never done it before you might want to start with the headband pattern here before moving on to a bigger project.

The hat and the headband both come in three sizes for adults (the small would probably work for a teen) and the infinity scarf is one size but you could adjust it to be bigger or smaller if you like.

These projects are so pretty and relatively easy to do, too, even if you’ve never worked brioche before.

You can find all the patterns, complete with photo tutorials, at Mirella Moments: hat | headband | infinity scarf.

[Photo: Mirella Moments]

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