Decreasing – something that seems so unimportant yet one small change makes all the difference.

Hopefully you’ve read the previous three blog posts I’ve done in this Professional Finishing series. There is one on Sizing and then the another one on that T word that we all love so much,( sarcasm doesn’t read well does it?!) or you may prefer to see some short videos on the techniques I’ve mentioned. 

The next bit I talk about in the Professional Finishing workshop is decreasing. So we’re not in the sewing up stage yet we are still in the preparation stage. With Professional Finishing and the look that we want to get, it’s all about preparation – preparing us to do the least amount of sewing up possible because – what do we love doing? We love knitting! (excitement doesn’t read well either!)
We want to do as much knitting as we can and therefore make the sewing up and the joining together less – but also more enjoyable. 

One thing that I do now, is that I’ve started to write in my patterns where to decrease your stitch at the end of the row. In a lot of my old patterns and in a lot of patterns that you might come across, they will tell you to decrease one stitch at the beginning of a row, whether that is a neck decrease or an armhole decreases.
This is where, in a pattern, it will say – for armholes on a back for example – decrease one stitch at each end of the next row.
Or for a neck decrease, depending which side it’s on, it will tell you to decrease one stitch at the end or decrease one stitch at the beginning of the row. 

My suggestion, and something I have personally done for years, to make picking up stitches simple, easy and fun is to knit those decrease stitches as a certain position.

We have to build a good foundation, this time with our decrease stitch placement, to make picking up stitches easy. 

And this is the fun bit, we can make one tiny change in the knitting bit of our project,  something that is really easy and really enjoyable to then make something which wasn’t enjoyable to become more enjoyable!

So what do we do with our decrease stitch?
What we don’t do, is we don’t do it right on the edge stitch, we do it one stitch in. The reason why we decrease one stitch in is to make picking up stitches beautiful. Enjoyable. Exciting. Because picking up stitches is fun. It IS fun…when you decrease one stitch from the edge.
And by decreasing one stitch in from the edge you get a really neat edge which makes picking up stitches easier. 

As I’ve mentioned before, I have sewn up so many people’s knitting and when those stitches are decreased right at the edge on the first or last two stitches then picking up stitches is not enjoyable. It’s horrible. Agree with those knitters who say “I hate picking up stitches, it’s never neat” I ask where they are decreasing their stitches because if you don’t do it one stitch in, it isn’t neat, and it is horrible. It’s not enjoyable, you need that nice stitch at the edge.
The other thing to do actually is to knit or purl, to work all those stitches in pattern because if you slip the first stitch, which some people do, it doesn’t create enough stitches to pick up.

It’s a simple thing to make picking up stitches and sewing together more enjoyable, decrease one stitch in from the edge.
So how do we do that? It’s different whether you’re doing it at the beginning of the row or the end of the row. 

At the end of a row, you knit to the last three stitches, knit two stitches together, knit one stitch.
I’ve made a short video here to show you this technique. 

At the beginning of the row, you knit one stitch, then slip one stitch, knit one stitch, pass the slip stitch over. The short video for that technique is here.

This second technique, is what I might call the contravisional technique! There are many different versions of how to decrease at the beginning of a row because when you knot two together the result is a lovely neat tight stitch, when you slip and then pass that slip stitch over it can be a loose big stitch. I have tried all the different variations and I do like a slip one, knit one, pass slip stitch over but I just make sure I don’t pull that slip stitch because that’s when you can get that big loop. But if you’ve found something that works for you – go for it! Just know that this is knit two together this side, and this side is slip one, knit one and pass slip stitch over or SSK or knit two together through back of loop, whatever works for you.

If you don’t do anything else in this Professional Finishing series then I hope you do this technique. It’s just one teeny tiny change which completely transforms how the knitting looks and you still haven’t come to the sewing up bit yet.
That’s the thing with Professional Finishing, we’re just planning and preparing but we’ve not come to the actual sewing up yet which, we’re preparing our knitting so then when we come to join it together it will be so much fun.