The Knitters Bible9

Decorative decreasing one stitch knitwise

There are two wa/s to work the decrease that is the pair to k2tog.They both produce the same result and slope to the left See page 32 for ways to slip stitches.

Slip one. slip one, knit two together (ssk or p2tog tbl)

1 Slip two stitches knitwise one at a time from left-hand needle to right-hand needle.

2 Insert the left-hand needle from left to right through the fronts of these two stitches and knit together as one stitch.

Slip one. knit one. pass slipped stitch over (skpo)

the result:_

FULL FASHIONED DECREASES

You can use decreases in fuH fashłoning in the same way as increases.

Slope to the right

knit row - k2tog puri row - p2tog

Slope to the left

knit row - ssk or skpo puri row - ssp

GETTING STARTED

Slip two stitches knitwise. knit one. pass the two slipped stitches over (sl2tog-kl-psso)

1 Insert the right-hand needle knitwise mto the next stitch and slip it on to the right-hand needle without knitting it Knit the next stitch.

Central decreasing

Double decreases can also be worked where the two decreased stitches are arranged around a central stitch. Sk2po (see nght) is a central decrease.To make a feature of the double decrease with rts unbroken chain stitch running up the centre. work the central decrease as follows.

2 With the tip of the left-hand needle. lift the slipped stitch over the knitted stitch and off the needle. This is like bmdmg (casting) off one stitch.

Insert the right-hand needle mto the next two stitches as if to knit them together. slip them off together on to the right-hand needle without knitting them. Knit the next stitch. With the tip of the left-hand needle. lift the two slipped stitches together over the knitted stitch and off the needle.

Decreasing two stitches at once

The two simplest ways are to knit three stitches together (k3tog) or pud three stitches together (p3tog).These are worked the same as k2tog and p2tog, but worked over three stitches mstead of two.

The pair to k3tog is slip one. knit two together. pass slipped stitch over (sk2po). which is worked m the same manner as skpo but k2tog mstead of kl.

Ałternatively. the pair can be worked like ssk but slip three stitches knitwise mstead of two.

The pair to p3tog is worked like ssp but over three stitches instead of two.

29