Beginner's Guide to Crochet - UK (2019-10)

SHAPING CROCHET

D

ecreasing in treble crochet is just

as easy as in double crochet. There

are two main methods of

decreasing that you’ll see used in patterns.

Some patterns use a quick decrease

method, where you’ll be instructed to ‘skip a

stitch’ – this means you need to leave the

next stitch unworked, and work into the

following stitch. The quick method works

well, but it will leave a small hole in the fabric

• if that’s the effect you want, that’s fine.
  If you want a solid fabric, you’ll need to
  work a decrease that’s usually called tr2tog
  in patterns (shown below).
  Skipping one stitch or working tr2tog (the
  abbreviation for ‘treble 2 together’) once in

a row will reduce your stitch count by one.

You can decrease at any point along a row,

but the effects will be different if you

decrease at the start, at the end or at the

centre of the row.

You can practise decreasing on a small

swatch of treble fabric so you can see how

the decreases will affect your pattern.

TREBLE

DECREASE

Here’s how to decrease one treble crochet stitch

RIGHT-HAND

3

Now complete both treble stitches together

by working yrh and pull this loop through all

3 loops on the hook.

4

This is how your completed tr2tog should

look. You will have neatly decreased one

treble stitch. On subsequent rows, you can

simply work a stitch into the top of the tr2tog

stitch as usual.

1

Begin a treble stitch in the usual way. Work

yrh, insert hook under top two loops of next

stitch on previous row. Work yrh and pull loop

through (3 loops on hook), yrh and pull through

first 2 loops (2 loops on hook).

2

Without finishing the first treble stitch, begin

the next treble by working: yrh, insert hook

in next stitch on previous row. Again, work yrh,

pull loop through, yrh and pull through first 2

loops (3 loops on hook).

If you’re right-handed, follow these steps for a perfect tr2tog...