How to do "double decrease"

kjhart1 · 07-12-2005, 09:48 AM

This is my first visit to this forum... I'm glad I bumped into it. I'm making a knit lace shawl pattern that I picked up on my vacation in Camden, ME. The pattern is from Blackberry Ridge, and it's a doozy. It's called Legends of the Shetland Seas and it's made on Shetland wool singles (about the thickness of crochet thread #10, but very fragile) on size 2 needles... Does anyone know how to work a double decrease?

ekgheiy · 07-12-2005, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by kjhart1

This is my first visit to this forum... I'm glad I bumped into it. I'm making a knit lace shawl pattern that I picked up on my vacation in Camden, ME. The pattern is from Blackberry Ridge, and it's a doozy. It's called Legends of the Shetland Seas and it's made on Shetland wool singles (about the thickness of crochet thread #10, but very fragile) on size 2 needles... Does anyone know how to work a double decrease?

Well, there are many ways to do this. Usually, a pattern specifies which technique to use. A double decrease is just getting rid of two sts, so you could k2tog twice. But that might necessarily look the best for your pattern. Do you have a link to the pattern?? If you haven't already, check out Amy's decrease page and pick a dec that you think would look the best for your pattern if the pattern doesn't say which dec to use.

kjhart1 · 07-12-2005, 03:12 PM

Thanks for the suggestion and for the link info. I've never seen so many ways to decrease! I'll probably try a few different ones and see which looks the best. (this pattern has my mind in a boggle, and it had me thinking that a "double decrease" was one continuous st which reduces the row by 2 sts). I don't have a link to the pattern (not sure how to do that), but here's an example of part of the pattern:

key: . (knit)
/ (knit 2 tog)
o (yarn over)
5 (knit 5 or whatever # appears)
[] repeat between brackets

. [ 3/5 . . / o . . 5 . . o / . . ] . .
. [ . 4/7 . . / o . . . o / . . . ] . .
. [ . . 5/9 . . / o . o / . . 4 . ] . .

eek! Thanks again - I better get back to work.

Julie · 07-12-2005, 03:22 PM

My favorite lace pattern (lol, the only one I know by heart) has a double decrease...sk2po... slip 1, k2tog, pass the slipped stitch over. Easy to work and very pretty.

ekgheiy · 07-12-2005, 04:17 PM

Is this it?

kjhart1 · 07-12-2005, 04:41 PM

THAT's IT! Thanks. Sure is a challenge... the yarn is not only really really fine, but it's not a plyed yarn, so it's really really fragile.

I'll check back in later today -- need to go get more work done (employment is always interferring with real life!)

Ingrid · 07-12-2005, 09:47 PM

I'm not sure if you figured it out, but it looks like k2tog is the dec they call for.

So your first row that you showed would be

K3, K2tog, K5, k2tog, yo, k5, yo, k2tog

for every slash you k2tog, for every o you yarn over, for every number you knit that number.

You may have figured that out already, if so, good luck on your shawl--its beautiful!

kjhart1 · 07-13-2005, 01:08 PM

Thanks, I did understand the sts for all the symbols except the "X" in chart B, which is supposed to be a "double decrease". I tried just doing 2 decreases, but ran out of sts. I finally ended up doing slip 2 sts, k1, pass both slip sts over. That seemed to work ok and looks fine. Not sure if it's right, but unless someone has better information it'll do.
Thanks to everyone for the help.

KellyK · 07-13-2005, 01:12 PM

I think you may just want to reverse that...
slip 1
knit 2 tog
pass the slip st over the k2tog.