Decrease Evenly


There are times when you are instructed to increase or decrease evenly across a row. This instruction could be used for creating gathers or reducing a large number of stitches in work.

Unlike in hand knitting, machine knitters need to remove the knitting from the machine, then rehang the stitches accordingly.
Stitches can be removed with a garter bar, waste knitting or a hand knitting needle.

  • Increasing: After removing the stitches from the machine, pull out the desired number of needles and rehang the stitches, skipping needles. Fill in the empty needles with the purl strand from the row below, or leave the needles empty for eyelets, increasing the number of stitches in work.

  • Decreasing: After removing the stitches from the machine, pull out the desired number of needles and rehang the stitches, doubling up stitches on needles evenly across the row, reducing the number of stitches in work.