Decreases

How to work it

1. Begin in the next stitch

   You are part way along a row of single crochet, with one loop on the hook. Find the next stitch of the row below, the first one you have not yet worked into. Its top is two strands that lie side by side like a V. Push the hook under both strands, from the side that faces you through to the back. There, at the back of the work, take the yarn that leads to the ball over the hook from back to front (up behind the hook and over its top toward you), and draw it back through the stitch, to the side that faces you. There are two loops on the hook. Do not finish the stitch.

2. Begin in the one after

   

   Go to the stitch after that one, the next along the row below. Push the hook under both strands of its top, from the side that faces you through to the back, take the yarn over the hook again, the same way, and draw it back through that stitch. There are three loops on the hook.

3. Finish both together

   

   Take the yarn over the hook once more, the same way, and draw it through all three loops at once. One loop is left on the hook. The one stitch you have made stands on two stitches of the row below, and the row has one stitch fewer.

At a glance

Used for

making a piece narrower; shaping stuffed toys, where the rounds have to close in

Abbreviation

sc2tog in single crochet. The taller stitches have their own: hdc2tog, dc2tog, tr2tog.

Also written

dec, or sc dec

Counts as

One stitch

What it uses

The next two stitches of the row below

When it goes wrong

My stitch count did not go down.

A decrease has to use two stitches of the row below. If both loops were pulled up in the same stitch, nothing was taken away.

There is a small gap where I decreased.

Try the invisible decrease, which shows less.

Left-handed

The pictures show the hook held in the right hand. For the left hand, read each picture as its mirror image.

Variations

• Invisible decrease. Push the hook through the front loops only of the next two stitches, one after the other, then take the yarn over and pull through those two loops, and take the yarn over again and pull through the last two. It shows less than the usual decrease and is common in stuffed toys.