How to Decrease Stitch in Single Crochet
Increases and decreases are used to make your fabric (the pieces of your project) gradually wider or narrower. They are often used in clothing patterns because of the shaping required to make sleeves, fitted sweaters and pockets. If you've ever seen a shirt pattern laid out, you've seen that the sleeves are almost triangular, wide at the top, narrower at the bottom. Since you can't cut your crocheted fabric into the shapes you need, like you can with cloth, you have to make the pieces the right shapes to begin with. That's where the decrease and increase come in.
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Instructions
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Single Crochet Two Together Decrease
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1
Push your hook through the target stitch.
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2
Yarn over.
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3
Pull your hook back through the stitch.
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4
Push your hook through the next stitch.
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5
Yarn over.
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6
Pull your hook back through the stitch. You should have three loops on your hook.
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7
Yarn over.
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8
Pull the hook back through all three loops.
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9
Know that single crochet two together is usually abbreviated "sc2tog."
Single Crochet Three Together Decrease
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10
Push your hook through the target stitch.
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11
Yarn over.
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12
Pull your hook back through the stitch.
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13
Push your hook through the next stitch.
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14
Yarn over.
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15
Pull your hook back through the stitch.
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16
Push your hook through the next stitch.
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17
Yarn over.
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18
Pull your hook back through the stitch. You should have four loops on your hook.
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19
Yarn over.
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20
Pull your hook back through all four loops.
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21
Know that single crochet three together is abbreviated "sc3tog."
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1
Tips & Warnings
Spread your decreases out through the pattern to get a more gradual curve. Conversely, a sharper curve would place decrease stitches more frequently and near the end of the fabric.
You don't have to do your decreases in single crochet only. You can decrease in double or triple, too.
Single crochet two together makes a small decrease. You can increase the number of stitches you do together to make a sharper decrease.
Do decrease stitches in the middle of row, not at the ends, to make the decrease more natural looking.
Don't lose count! Each "single crochet two together" decrease stitch drops your stitch count by one for the next row. It can be easy to lose track of the number of stitches you need to have in a row when you are designing a pattern.
Don't add more stitches. The most likely place to accidentally add stitches is at the beginning and end of a row. Count after each row if you're unsure if you've made the right number of stitches.
