Centered Single Decrease (csd)
The Centered Single Decrease is not invisible, but it is magically slant-less. You work it over three stitches to decrease one stitch, and the two stitches that remain manage to lean neither right nor left. Fun fact… Some people refer to this decrease as the Bunny Ears Decrease because the finished stitches look like two little ears veering in opposite directions!
Here’s our Centered Single Decrease tutorial, where we show you how we do it…
Click To See Video Transcript
I am going to show you how to work a Centered Single Decrease. I have a swatch here, and you can see I’ve worked this decrease three times. It’s a really great decrease. It doesn’t slant left or right. It’s centered just like its name says, and it’s worked over three stitches. I’m going to show you how to do it.
First slip one knitwise, then slip one more knitwise. Next, take the tip of your left needle, insert it into the front of those two slip stitches, and you do this in order to knit them together. Then identify those two stitches that you just slipped, the stitches just below where you just worked. So you can see here the first one and the second one. You’re going to take the tip of your left needle and insert it into that second slip. Stitch the row below, and then you’re going to knit these two together. That’s it. That’s a Centered Single Decrease.
I’m going to work a few stitches and show you how to do it one more time. So first slip one knitwise, slip one knitwise. Insert the tip of your left needle into the front of those stitches. Work them together. Identify the two stitches from the row below. Insert your left needle into the second stitch, and knit those two stitches together. And that’s it. That’s a Centered Single Decrease.
First, work a left-leaning decrease over two stitches, similar to a slip slip knit (ssk), but you slip both stitches knitwise. Here’s how…
Slip one knitwise.
Slip a second stitch knitwise.
Insert the left needle into the front of both slipped stitches, then knit them together.
Next, you’ll work a right-leaning decrease over two stitches, the first of those stitches you will have to pick up…
Insert the left needle into the second of the stitches you just knit together (the one in back), and place it onto the left needle, ready to be worked…
Insert the right needle into the next two stitches on the left needle and knit them together (like a k2tog).
That’s it… One stitch decreased and the remaining stitches remain centered. No leaning here!
Practice, Practice, Practice
Put what you learned in our Centered Single Decrease tutorial to work with our free Top + Bottom Top pattern.
The Top + Bottom Top is worked from the bottom-up. Cast on with a fingering-weight yarn and then rapidly decreased using the Centered Single Decrease to continue at a larger gauge!
Looking for more inspiration? Explore all of our free knitting patterns and knitting tutorials, buy one of our many knitting kits and yarn bundles, and shop for beautiful yarn. We have over 35 gorgeous natural fiber yarns in 100’s of magnificent colors, designed to bring integrity, beauty, and joy to your next knitting project and only available at Purl Soho!
Very interesting. In all the years I have knitted have never seen that before. I will be sure and save it in mt favorites. Thank you.
These crochet hats are amazing. We can add corchet flowers to them if we want to make it look cooler.
Sharing some crochet flower designs!
http://ideas4diy.com/amazing-diy-crochet-flowers/
Thank you! I am trying to duplicate a pattern from a photo and need to decrease an eyelet row smack in the center. Right or left left decreases just didn’t look right. And having no pattern to work with I was stumped. This is perfect.