How to Knit Side Decreases

Square and rectangle knits are easy to make because you only need to know two stitches: the knit and the purl. If you want to make more complicated knits, you'll need to know how to increase and decrease the number of stitches in your row. This will allow you to make more complicated projects. Luckily, these stitches are easy to learn. Here's how you can knit a left and right side decrease.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Complete a Right Side Decrease

1. Make sure you are working on a knit row. The V-shapes of the knit stitches should be facing you.

2. Begin on the right side of your knit piece. You will not want to begin a decrease on the first stitch of the row. So knit at least one stitch before continuing with the decrease.

3. Slip one stitch onto your right needle. To slip a stitch, you simply take one yarn loop off your left-hand needle by inserting your right-hand needle in through the left and out the right side of the loop. Do not knit any of your yarn through this loop.

4. Knit the next loop on your left-hand needle as normal.

5. Pass your slip stitch over your knit stitch. This step is similar to binding off. You take the second stitch on your right-hand needle and pull it over your first stitch and off the needle. This will make a decrease on the right side of your knitted project.

Complete a Left Side Decrease

6. Start a few stitches away from the left end of a knit row. Like a right side decrease, you do not want your left side decrease to occur on either of the last two stitches in the row. Instead, start your left side decrease on the fourth or third to last stitch.

7. Move your right-hand needle through the back of two stitches on your left hand needle. Unlike a normal knit stitch, in which your right-hand needle moves from left to right, in a left side decrease, your needle will go behind your left-hand needle from right to left.

8. Pull yarn through both stitches at the same time, and you've completed a left side decrease by knitting two stitches together.