A Slip Slip Knit (or ssk) is a very common single decrease in knitting, characterized by its left-leaning slant. Ssk’s are often used in cahoots with the right-leaning Knit 2 Together (k2tog), shaping everything from toes of socks to necklines of sweaters. There are lots of correct ways to do this technique, but this Slip Slip Knit Tutorial shows our favorite method… It mirrors Knit 2 Together’s very nicely!

Slip Slip Knit: Video Tutorial

Click To See Video Transcript

Hey, guys, I’m going to show you how to slip, slip, knit. It’s a decrease method with this really lovely left-leaning slope to it. You’ll see it in patterns, abbreviated SSK.

I’m actually decreasing a couple of stitches in from the edge, so I’m going to take two knit stitches, and then I’ll demonstrate the decrease.

Okay. So to SSK first slip one knitwise from front to back. Then slip one purl wise from back to front. And then what you want to do is take the tip of your left needle and slide it into the front of those two slip stitches. Now you’re actually ready to knit. And so you would just knit these two together like normal.

But before we fully decrease, I’m gonna actually take this out and show you one more time. So.

Okay, so slip one knitwise, slip one purlwise. Take the tip of the left needle into the front of those two slip stitches, and then you just knit them together. And now you have decreased one stitch with a left slant to it. I’m to just knit to the end of this row real quick, and we’ll take a look at our decrease.

You’ll often see SSK paired together with another decrease method called knit two together. The reason they’re often put together is because they’re mirror versions of one another. So let’s see here. Here’s our SSK. This beautiful left slant. And here we have our knit two together with our right slant. And that’s it.

Slip Slip Knit: Step-By-Step Tutorial

To work a Slip Slip Knit (ssk), you…

  1. Slip one stitch knitwise with the yarn in back (wyib) from the left needle to the right needle
  2. Slip one stitch purlwise wyib.
  3. Insert the tip of the left needle knitwise into the two slipped stitches on the right needles. Notice how the stitches and needles look a lot like you’re about to knit two together… That’s exactly what you’ll do!
  4. Wrap the working yarn counter clockwise around the right needle and pull the yarn through both stitches and allow them to fall off the needle.

That’s it… A Slip Slip Knit (ssk) creates a left-leaning new stitch on the right needle and one less stitch overall!

Why Do We Do SSK This Way?

Like so many things in knitting, there are lots of ways to accomplish about the same thing. We’ve tried all the ways to Slip Slip Knit, and this is our favorite! It’s probably more common to slip both stitches knitwise before you knit them together, but we prefer to slip the first stitch knitwise and the second stitch purlwise. Here’s why…

Slip Slip Knit (ssk) | Purl Soho

Our method of ssks pairs with k2togs to create even, symmetrical decreases, slanting right and left respectively. You can how closely they mirror each other, above, in the toe shaping of our free Fun Striped Socks pattern in our Fine Print sock yarn.

When you slip both stitches knitwise, you make the decrease a bit tighter because you are twisting that second stitch as well as the first. This creates a more pronounced decrease, especially if you’re working them regularly, like for hat, toe, or raglan decreases. The ssk method we show you here slips the second purlwise, which loosens the decrease slightly looser so that it lies flatter and looks more like the knit two together decrease it is often paired with. Follow along with our tutorial and learn to ssk for the first time, or try this new way of Slip Slip Knitting and see why we like it the best!

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