Increasing and decreasing · Easy
Double crochet decrease
To decrease in double crochet (UK treble), start a stitch in each of the next two stitches, stop each one before its last pull, and then draw the yarn through all three loops on the hook. The two stitches end in one top, so the row has one stitch fewer. Patterns write it dc2tog, short for double crochet two together.
How to work it
Start the second stitch
Take the yarn over the hook and push the hook into the stitch after that one. Take the yarn over, pull up a loop, take the yarn over again and draw it through two loops, just as before. Now there are three loops on the hook, and two half-made stitches stand side by side below it.
Close both together
Take the yarn over the hook and draw it through all three loops at once. One loop is left on the hook. The two stitches now share one top, and that one top is the only place the next row can be worked into.
At a glance
- Also called
- dc2tog, dc dec, double crochet two together
- Used for
- making a piece narrower, to shape it; stitch patterns that work two stitches together as part of the design
- Abbreviation
- dc2tog
- Also written
- dc dec
- In UK terms
- treble two together (tr2tog)
- Counts as
- One stitch
- What it uses
- The next two stitches of the row below
- Loops before the last pull
- Three
The idea is the same for every tall stitch, half double crochet (UK half treble) included: work each stitch up to the moment when one more pull would finish it, leave it there, and finish them all with a single pull at the end.
The same moves take away more than one stitch. For dc3tog, start a third stitch in the next stitch before you close: there are four loops on the hook, and the last pull goes through all four. Each stitch you add leaves one more loop on the hook.
A row that begins with a decrease is often written with the turning chain standing in for half of it: chain 3, then one double crochet in the next stitch. The pattern says that the two together count as one dc2tog.
When it goes wrong
- My row has as many stitches as before.
- The first stitch was finished before the second was begun, which makes two stitches. Stop the first one while two loops are still on the hook, and keep those loops there while you start the second.
- I do not know how many loops I should have.
- Two after the first half-made stitch, three after the second. If you have more, a pull through two loops was left out.
- The decrease looks thick beside the other stitches.
- Try the invisible decrease below, which joins the two stitches at their feet and not at their tops.
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 double crochet decrease. Take the yarn over the hook, then push the hook through the front loop only of the next stitch and, without a new yarn over, through the front loop only of the stitch after it. Take the yarn over and pull through those two front loops. Then finish like any double crochet: yarn over and pull through two loops, twice. It shows less than the usual decrease.
Questions
- What does dc2tog mean in a crochet pattern?
- Double crochet two together: two stitches of the row below are worked into one stitch. It takes one stitch off the row.
- Is dc2tog the same as dc dec?
- Usually, yes. Both names are in use for this decrease. A pattern that means something else by its decrease says so in its notes, so read those first.
- How do I do dc3tog?
- Start a double crochet in each of the next three stitches, stopping each one before its last pull. With four loops on the hook, take the yarn over and draw it through all four.
- Does a dc2tog count as one stitch or two?
- One. It stands on two stitches of the row below but has a single top, so count it once.