Learn How to crochet decrease 3 basic Crochet stitches

Learning to crochet is more than just learning stitches and making flat items such as blankets. You can take your crochet to another level by just learning a few other basic skills. The first of these skills is learning how to crochet decrease. Once I finally understood this concept, so much about crocheting made much more sense.

Since this post is geared toward crochet beginners, I am going to cover crochet decreases on some of the most basic stitches. We will cover the single crochet, the double crochet, and the half double crochet. We will also discuss the abbreviations you will see in patterns that tell you to do a crochet decrease.

How to Crochet decrease

Crochet decrease, dec, means that you are reducing the number of stitches that you are working. A crochet decrease can be seen in just about any crochet project, even the flat blanket. An example of this would be if you were doing a ripple Afghan. That is how you make the ripples, crochet decreases and crochet increases. This post will be all about crochet decreases.

The point of decreases and increases is not just to change the number of stitches, the actual purpose is to change the SHAPE of the crochet item. Think about this, if you aren’t counting your stitches, the edges of your blanket will narrow if you miss stiches. This is because you are accidentally decreasing and changing the shape of the blanket. Same thing when the edges widen, you are accidentally adding stiches, or increasing, changing the shape of the blanket.

The photo below shows a double crochet decrease (and a crochet increase).

A crochet decrease is not as simple as just leaving out a stitch. The idea is to create one stitch over the place where more than one would go. Sometimes you have to change the stitch a bit to create the decrease. This is why you need to know how to decrease different types of stitches.

How to decrease 3 Basic Stitches

Single Crochet

To do a single crochet decrease you will insert your hook and pull up a loop. Normally you would yarn over and pull through 2 loops, but to do the decrease you will instead insert your hook into the next stitch, you should now have 3 loops on your hook. Now you will yarn over and pull through all 3 loops. You have now done a single crochet that spans 2 stitches, condensing them down to 1 stitch.

Double Crochet

A double crochet decrease (dc2tog or dc dec) is done very similarly to a single crochet decrease. Before the final yarn over and ending of the stitch, you will insert hook through another stitch, then yarn over and end the stitch. If you were doing a dc3tog you would insert hook through 2 more stitches before completing the final yarn over and end the stitch.

Stitchesnscraps.com has a great photo of the dc3tog just before the final yarn over and ending of the stitch. See below:

Half Double Crochet

The half double crochet decrease works the same way. You start the stitch as normal, yarn over, insert hook in stitch, pull up a loop. (3 loops on hook) Insert hook into next stitch, yarn over and pull through 4 loops.

The link below is a decrease calculator that does an amazing job of helping you figure out your crochet decrease (or increase)!

https://www.poppyshop.ca/crochetcalculator

Abbreviations

Different patterns have different abbreviations, so it is important to recognize the different options. For example, sc2tog (single crochet two together) indicates a decrease. The pattern is telling you to single crochet 2 stitches together. In other words, turn 2 single crochet stitches into 1 single crochet, thus removing a stitch from the row.

Decreases aren’t just done in 2’s, though. Sometimes you will reduce stitches faster than that. That being said, you may see sc3tog (single crochet 3 together) in a pattern. Now you have taken 3 stitches and turned them into 1.

Another abbreviation for this that is common for decrease is sc dec (single crochet decrease) or dc dec (double crochet decrease), or hdc dec (half double crochet decrease).

Typically, most decrease stitches will be written one of the 2 ways above. The beginning of the abbreviation will tell you the stitch, and the end will tell you how many to decrease. To decrease a half double crochet, you might see: hdc2tog (half double crochet 2 together) or hdc dec.