Quick and Easy Alternative to the “Slip, Slip, Slip, Knit” (SSSK) Decrease

We don’t use double decreases often, but when we do need to make one stitch out of three, we have a choice – an awkward “knit 3 together”, a tricky centered double decrease, or a time-consuming “slip, slip, slip, knit” (SSSK) decrease.

But what if we need to make several double decreases in the same row, and we are not particularly worried about the slant of the stitch that results from each decrease?

I had this dilemma when I was making a gift for my friends’ baby girl. It was a lovely bonnet with a ruffled edging at the front. The ruffles are created by making one stitch out of three, and that means that the whole ruffle-forming row was made up of double decreases, sixty-six of them.

In this situation, it is best to use the easiest and the quickest way to decrease two stitches. After testing all double decrease methods that I could come up with, I discovered that the best option is a simplified variation of the classic SSSK decrease.

Here’s how to make it step by step.

Because this method is a variation of the left-leaning “slip, slip, slip, knit” decrease, the resulting stitch slants to the left, but this slant is offset by the other two stitches. This forms a more balanced decrease that looks more like a fan than a line with a sharp angle.

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