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A knitting pattern with the word Dec in it can be puzzling – what should you do?

That depends on what you want to accomplish.

Occasionally, the pattern writer will tell you what to do. But more often than not, you have to figure it out yourself.

Here is some information about decreases in knitting, and in particular, a decrease in which two stitches on the old needle become one stitch on the new needle.

When you work a decrease, only two things can happen: either the right stitch covers the left stitch (making a left-leaning decrease), or the left stitch covers the right stitch (making a right-leaning decrease).

So if you want to see a mirror image in your project (say in armhole shaping for a sweater, or in some lace patterns), then you probably want one of each type.

The most commonly used right-leaning Knit decrease is the K2tog (Knit 2 stitches together).

Here are the two most commonly used left-leaning Knit decreases:

• SKP (Slip 1 stitch knitwise, Knit 1 stitch, Pass the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch)
• SSK (Slip 1 stitch knitwise, Slip another stitch knitwise (don’t do both at the same time), Slip both stitches purlwise back onto the old needle, then knit the two stitches together through the back loops)

Purl-based decreases are uncommon, but they do occur.

The most commonly used left-leaning Purl decrease is the P2tog (Purl 2 stitches together).

There are two commonly used right-leaning Purl decreases:

• P2togtbl (Purl 2 stitches together through back loops).
• SSP (Slip 1 stitch knitwise, Slip another stitch knitwise (don’t do both at the same time), Slip both stitches purlwise back onto the old needle, then purl the two stitches together through the back loops)

OK, so now we have identified the usual decreases for knitting. Now what?

When you are working the armhole or sleeve cap shaping for a sweater, the pattern writer will just say “Dec 1 stitch at each end of row such-and-such”.

The key guideline is to work a left-leaning decrease on the right edge and a right-leaning decrease at the left edge.

On a lace knitting pattern, the pattern designer very likely has incorporated the slant of the decreases into the lace design, so most lace patterns will specifically tell you which decrease to use. Here is an example:

Row 2: K4. * K2tog. YO. K1. YO. SKP. K5. Rep from * until 9 sts rem. K2tog. YO. K1. YO. SKP. K4.

Conclusion: now you have some guidance on how to interpret the Dec instruction when you read it in a knitting pattern.

For more information on learning to read knitting patterns

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Author: Judy Obee
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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