Decrease or increase evenly across a row
Enter how many stitches you have and how many to decrease or increase. The pattern appears here, with the same number of stitches at both edges.
- k3, k2tog
- *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times in total
- k6, k2tog
- *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times in total
- k3
110 sts on the needle in total
The row from the right side: each mark is a stitch, the red ones are the decreases or increases.
Knitting back and forth, the row starts and ends with the same number of stitches, so the shaping is even across the whole piece.
Work it out on your phone in KnitBuddy, tick off each step as you knit and count your rows. On iPhone and iPad the calculation keeps in your project.
How to work it out yourself
Example: 128 stitches knitted flat, and 18 stitches to decrease.
- Each decrease (
k2tog) uses 2 stitches, so 18 decreases use 36. That leaves 128 − 36 = 92 stitches to knit plain. - The 92 stitches are shared out over 19 gaps: before the first decrease, between them and after the last. Each edge gets half a gap, 92 ÷ 36 ≈ 3 stitches at each end.
- The middle gets the rest: 92 − 6 = 86 stitches in 17 gaps, which is 5 stitches each and one gap of 6 in the middle.
- The row reads as below, and you have 110 stitches.
k3, k2tog *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times in total k6, k2tog *k5, k2tog*, repeat from * to * 8 times in total k3 110 sts on the needle in total
In the round there are no edges: 92 stitches in 18 gaps, 5 stitches in most of them and 6 in 2, spread evenly round.
Questions
- Why does the row start and end with the same number of stitches?
- So the shaping is spread over the whole piece instead of bunching at one edge. When the piece is seamed, the two half gaps at the edges meet and make a whole one.
- What do k2tog and M1 mean?
- k2tog is knit two together: a decrease that turns two stitches into one. M1 is make one: an increase, for example by lifting the strand between two stitches and knitting into the back of it.
- How many stitches can I decrease or increase at most?
- Decreases: half the stitches, because each one uses two. Increases need a stitch between them: knitting flat, one fewer than the stitches on the needle; in the round, as many as there are stitches.
- What changes when I knit in the round?
- There are no edges, so the plain stitches are shared out over as many gaps as there are decreases or increases. The gaps differ by at most one stitch, and the bigger ones are spread round the needle.