how do i make a hole like the one created with a yarn over while decreasing a knit row?

Question

how do i make a hole like the one created with a yarn over while decreasing a knit row?

Answer 1

I do this regularly when doing Granny's Favorite Dishcloth. You K2tog, YO, K2tog. This will give you your decrease & your yarn over without any additional stitches being made.



Any other questions, just email me.

Answer 2

Because the YO is an increase, when you are decreasing at the crown with a K2tog (for example) and using the YO to make a hole, you are negating the decrease. So you will need to do twice as many decrease stitches as you would normally to make up for the increases you will make.



You can do the double decrease, and there are some very nice ways to do that, depending on the effect you want to achieve. Or you can do a decrease on either side of the YO. For example, K2tog, YO, SSK (mirror images of each other). That will result in a decrease of one stitch.



Remember that you can also do another decrease on the next row (normally a plain knit row) which will have the same effect as a double decrease on your pattern row, should you not find you can work in the two decreases with your design.



And finally, you can always go down in needle sizes slowly over the next few rows. It will not be totally satisfactory, but will reduce the size of your crown somewhat.

Answer 3

Can you show us what the pattern says? Right off the top of my head I'd think:



YO K2tog or YO P2tog



That way you are getting the hole but not increasing the number of stitches. But I think we could provide better help if we knew what the pattern says.

Answer 4

then you will want to do a double decrease.



Double decreases



A double decrease consists of stacking three loops and pulling a single loop through them, thus decreasing two stitches away.



Ignoring issues of tension, double decreases can be completely described by (1) the order of the three stitches, and (2) whether the stitches end up twisted. I'm going to look just at the issue of order, and treat twisted kinds as variants. This is like considering k2tog tbl as another way to make something that looks like an SSK. There are, mathematically, six possible orders:



Left-center-right (LCR). This puts the left loop on top and the right loop on the bottom. It's made by knitting 3 together (k3tog). It slants very strongly to the right.



Right-center-left (RCL). This can be done as SSSK, S2-k-p2sso, or k3tog tbl. That is, you do what you would do for a left-slanting single decrease, but do it with one more stitch. It slants very strongly to the left. k3tog tbl, like most tbl stitches, twists the stitches and the others do not.



Center-right-left or center-left-right (C**). These decreases put the center stitch on top. Consequently, they look more symmetric than any of the other double decreases. CRL is usually done by working *slip 2 as if to k2tog, knit 1, pass 2 slipped sts over.* You need either a magnifying glass, bulky yarn, or to be looking really really closely to tell the difference between CRL and CLR, so I'm going to treat them as identical. C** means "either CRL or CLR". This decrease doesn't slant at all. It is the decrease running up the middle of Branching out.



Right-left-center (RLC). This is usually done by working *slip 1, k2tog, psso.* alunissage has an alternative method: Slip 1 as if to knit, slip 2 as if to k2tog, insert left needle from left to right through all three stitches and knit 3 together, as if to SSSK.

On the right side, this is probably the easiest of the double decreases. This decrease sort of slants to the left. In some patterns, it's used that way, and you can use it to replace RCL, and you can pair it with LCR to get symmetric double decreases.



However, this decrease also looks sort of like an inverted V. This is what is used at the tops of, say, leaves. (See the tree article for closeups of leaves to show you what I mean.) If you use it this way, it looks fairly symmetric, and you don't really want to replace it with RCL. This is my problem with Walker; by replacing it on the wrong side with "p3tog tbl", you get an RCL instead of an RLC, which is definitely a left-slanting decrease and not a centered one.





Left-right-center (LRC). This is the actual mirror image of RLC. It's kind of rare to do this from the right side. Either it's being used as a right-slanting decrease, in which case LCR (k3tog) is a lot faster, or it's being used as a symmetric V-shaped decrease, in which case RLC is easier. It's used in Leaves and Waves, but I think in that case it could be replaced by LCR. If you really want LRC, the Leaves and Waves method is: SSK, slip the just-knitted stitch to left needle purlwise, pass next stitch over, and slip back to right needle, again purlwise.

Again, alunissage has an alternative method: slip 2 knitwise as if to SSK, then insert left needle through both stitches from right to left (this is sort of like slipping as to k2tog), then knit 3 together.



So those are the five possible decreases. Here's how you do them on the purl side:

LCR: p3tog or sl 2 purlwise-p1-p2sso.



RCL: sssp tbl. Or p3tog tbl, if you don't mind twisted stitches and are a loose enough knitter to be able to do it.



C**: I don't think I've ever actually done this one. I'd suggest: slip 2 as if to SSK, insert left needle through both stitches from right to left, then remove right needle and p3tog. This produces CLR, incidentally, not CRL.



LRC: Slip 1 purlwise. Work SSP tbl (or p2tog tbl). Pass slipped stitch over. This is a bit slower than the right-side version of RLC, but not by too overly much.



RLC: If possible, don't. If you want the effect of a left-slanting decrease, use RCL. (See, here's what Walker was thinking of.) If you want the effect of a centered, inverted-V decrease, use LRC. Deciding which is a judgement call that has to be made in every pattern, so it's kind of hard to put in a nice neat table of decreases.