Right Leaning and Left Leaning Purl Decreases

There is a bit of confusion around paired purl decreases. First, because the slant of the decreasing line is determined by the way it looks on the knit side of the fabric and not on the side we see when we make these decreases.

Also, because the slant doesn’t really matter much if the purl side of the work is the right side of the project – the bumpy texture formed by purls makes the decreasing lines almost invisible.

Confusing or not, these methods are widely used in cases when we decrease one or more stitches at each side of the fabric in every row.

When it happens, paired purl decreases are used alternatively with paired knit decreases – “knit 2 together” (k2tog) and “slip, slip, knit” (ssk).

In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at the most common ways to decrease stitches on the purl side of the work so that the resulting stitches slant to the right or to the left on the knit side of the fabric.

Use the same logic when you need to decrease more than one stitch. To make a right leaning double decrease, purl 3 stitches together. To decrease two stitches with a slant to the left, make a “slip, slip, slip, purl” decrease.

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