Knitting Lessons: Increasing and Decreasing Stitches

If you want to change the width of your knitting you will need to learn how to increase and decrease stitches. This will allow you to make more interesting knitted shapes.

When you increase stitches you are adding an extra stitch (or loop) to your needle. This will increase the length of your row by 1 stitch, thus increasing the width.

When you decrease stitches you are removing a stitch (or loop) from your needle. This will shrink the length of your row by 1 stitch, thus decreasing the width.

For more knitting lessons check out this guide.

Step 1 Increase Stitches

Increase Stitch: Basically, you are knitting two stitches like normal, but the first time you knit a stitch you do not slip the stitch off the left needle.

1. Knit a stitch, but don't slip the stitch off your left needle
2. Instead, bring your right needle through the top stitch on your left needle, and knit another stitch.
3. Now remove the stitch from the left needle