How to Increase and Decrease Knitting

If you want to make something besides a scarf or blanket, you'll need to learn to increase and decrease stitches. Increasing is normally done on the right side of the piece, and patterns don't always give good instructions on how to do this.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Knitting needles
• Yarn

Increase the Stitch

1. Knit the stitch in, round and through on a knit row. Don't take the stitch off yet.
2. Knit with the right needle into the back of the stitch that is on the left needle.
3. Slip this stitch off to make the extra stitch.
4. Purl into the front of the stitch on the purl row.
5. Purl into the back of the stitch on the left needle to make the extra stitch.

Decrease a Stitch

6. Knit or purl two stitches at the same time.
7. Slip the right needle through two stitches on the knit row and knit them as though they are one stitch. The abbreviation for this is K2tog and stands for "knit two together."
8. Purl your stitches using the same technique as above.

Tips & Warnings

• Work into the front and back of same stitch.
• You can find a knitting group in your area by visiting the Knitting Meetup website.