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Your Quick Reference Guide to Common Increases and Decreases

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We say that knitting is just two things: knitting and purling. But that isn’t really true. There are some other moves that admittedly aren’t any more difficult than knitting and purling that are super common and good to know for shaping knitting.

I’m talking about increases and decreases, of course, and we’ve put together an handy infographic that covers the basics of increasing and decreasing, what different methods look like and how they are formed.

Keep it as a reference when you need a refresher, or use it to learn a new skill. (You can find more in-depth tutorials for each one of them at About Knitting if you need more information.)

I hope you like this infographic and if there’s more knitting information you’d like to see in such a format, let me know!

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Have you read?

Krampus Sweater Knitting Pattern

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.  

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun. 

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size). 

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up. 

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits. 

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]