How to Work Simple Decreases in Crochet
Any of the basic crochet stitches can be easily modified to create a decrease in the number of stitches in your row or round (i.e. reduce your stitch count by 1).
Below you will find instructions for each of the basic decrease stitches.
US Single Crochet 2 Together (sc2tog) / UK Double Crochet 2 Togehter (dc2tog)
Insert hook, yarn over, pull up a loop (2 loops on hook), insert hook into next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop (3 loops on hook), yarn over, pull through all 3 loops to complete the stitch
US Half Double Crochet 2 Together (hdc2tog) / UK Half Treble Crochet 2 Together (htr2tog)
Yarn over, insert hook, yarn over, pull up a loop (3 loops on hook), yarn over insert hook into next stitch , yarn over, pull up a loop (5 loops on hook), yarn over, pull through all 5 loops to complete the stitch.
Double Crochet 2 Together (dc2tog) / UK Treble Crochet 2 Together (tr2tog
Yarn over, insert hook into first stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop (3 loops on hook), yarn over, pull through 2 loops (2 loops on hook), yarn over, insert hook into next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop (4 loops on hook), yarn over, pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook), yarn over, pull through all 3 loops to complete the stitch.
Decreasing more than one stitch at a time
There are times when you may want to decrease by more than one stitch at once.
Here you can modify the above and repeat the instructions from when you insert the hook into the second stitch.
For example a US Double Crochet 3 Together (dc3tog) would go like this:
Yarn over, insert hook, yarn over, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through 2 loops, *yarn over insert hook into next stitch, yarn over pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through 2 loops; repeat from * and you will have 5 loops on your hook, yarn over, pull through all 5 loops to complete the stitch.
The same principle can be applied to any of these decrease stitches to decrease by as many stitches as you like – the more stitches you decrease by the more loops you will need to pull through to complete the stitch!