Help with Decreases for hat in reverse stockinette

[jschulz]

I am a beginning knitter (this is my 2nd project), but have experienced knitters helping me as needed with my projects. Well I have them all stumped on this one!
I’m knitting a hat following the Fartlek pattern by Anne Hanson. I am having trouble with a “bar” developing by each of my decrease stitches. I am doing the pattern in reverse stockinette and right after I do my decrease (in K2tog), this bar appears when i return to purling…creating a “ladder” effect. It’s definitely not a dropped stitch and I am bringing my working yarn back through my needles when I switch from knitting to purling. I have frogged back to right where I start decreasing and started anew with the same problem occurring again. Tried to p2tog instead but this doesn’t resolve it. Checked the comments of others who knitted this pattern and it seems most chose to do stockinette vs reverse stockinette.

I would appreciate any advice!

[suzeeq]

It looks like you might have brought your yarn over the top of the needle after doing the dec instead of between the needle tips. That can make a yo. Did the pattern say to do a k2tog on the purl side, though? You can do a p2tog and it won't show like the k2tog does.

[salmonmac]

Take a look at the video from the Glossary tab for k2tog just in case you're doing it differently. Usually the k2tog leans to the right and I'm not sure I see that in you photo. The decrease shouldn't leave a ladder, in either case. There's also a video for p2tog in case you want to look at that too. This is a link to a picture of the hat.
http://knitspot.com/knitting_pattern...hat-p-441.html

[suzeeq]

I see, the decs are supposed to be k on the RS for a decorative effect. Yeah, at the top, if you're using dpns, it may be the yarn is catching on a point after you do the dec and leaving the strand as you move the needle around, rather than making an extra stitch which would take up the loose yarn.