Chances are that if you’re making a hat, mittens, socks, or a sweater, you’re going to be decreasing. Chances are even better that one of the decreases you’ll be using is a knit two together (k2tog). The most popular right-leaning decrease, k2tog is a knitting essential. It’s also super easy! Here’s our Knit Two Together tutorial, including a video of how to work this stitch!

The basic gist of a k2tog is that you make a normal knit stitch, except instead of inserting the right needle into one stitch, you insert it into two. Just like it sounds, you really do just knit two together!

Click To See Video Transcript

Hey guys, I’m going to show you how to knit two together. I’ve started the swatch here and you can see the decrease is going along this edge. It has this really beautiful right slope to it. Knitting two together is probably the first way I learned how to decrease because of how easy it is. It’s so similar to just knitting one stitch, but instead you’re knitting two. So you take your tip of this right needle and instead of putting it in just the first stitch, you put it in from front to back, both the first and second stitch. So I’ll show you one more time right hand, right needle front to back. Just like that. Work it just as if you would work one load off the needle. I’m just going to knit to the end real quickly and see what we’ve got. You’ll often see it in patterns written as K, the number two, and then tog or T O G, and that is its official abbreviation. Here we go. One less stitch.

Knit Two Together Instructions

To work a k2tog, insert the tip of the right needle into the front leg of the second stitch on the left needle, just as if you were making a normal knit stitch. Keep going with the right needle and slip it into the first stitch on the needle, again, as if to knit. The front legs of both stitches are now on the right needle. Next, wrap the working yarn counter clockwise around the right needle. Pull the yarn through both stitches and allow them to fall off the left needle, just as you would a single stitch.

Ta da! Two stitches are now one: a right-leaning stitch on the right needle. A k2tog’s right-leaning nature comes in handy when you want decreases to follow the slope of something like a raglan line or a thumb gusset, which leads us to k2tog’s left-leaning buddy, the slip slip knit (ssk). It’ll come in handy in those situations and you can learn all about it right here!

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!