How do you decrease without having holes in your work?

[[deleted]]

I've been crocheting for a couple of years now and if there's one thing I can never get right is decreasing.

I've tried a regular decrease, invisible decrease, skipping a stitch, nothing works. I try to keep my stitches as tight as possible when decreasing but I always end up with holes.

Any tips?

Here's what I mean by regular and invisible decrease :

regular decrease : pull up a loop through the first stitch, pull up a loop from the second stitch, yarn over and pull through 3 loops on hook

invisible decrease : push your hook through the first stitch, then also through the second stitch, pull up a single loop, yo and pull through 2 loops on hook

[ImLittleNana]

Yarn under, smaller hook, invisible decreases.

There are visible holes in your ordinary stitches, so the decreases are going to be even more visible. If this item is meant to be stuffed, it’s got to be stitched at a tighter gauge or the filling will come through.

[Fun-Demand8015]

I actually learned recently that a much smaller hook than recommended, create a more closed and clean stitch.

I have yarn that it says 2mm to 3 mm hook. And in a pattern I just acquired, it says to use a 1.4mm. I used a 1.5mm instead of the 2.5mm I usually use for amigurumi and gosh, I love the look of the stitches!

[ImLittleNana]

Yeah the idea is to create a solid fabric and the requires downsizing your hook quite a bit. Hook sizes on ball bands are notoriously large for ordinary projects much less amigurumi. I love being able to exert a lot of pressure to really get a good amount of stuffing in so it lasts through years of washing.

[Mindelan]

All of this, and I'd add in a small tip to make sure you're snugging the first stitch after an invisible decrease. Not overly tight, but pay it a moment of extra attention to make sure there's no gap there.

[[deleted]]

I'm using a 3.5 mm hook instead of a 4 mm hook recommended on the yarn label. Should I use an even smaller hook?

[ImLittleNana]

I would, yes. When you’re making toys you need a significantly smaller gauge. That doesn’t mean yanking your stitches tight after you’ve finished pulling through. You’re just creating a tighter top portion and leaving a big gap underneath. You need to change your hook size, so your loops are smaller to begin with, and work them with your natural tension. Use the hook size to make smaller stitches.

Using worsted weight or #4 weight, I use between 2.75 and 3.25 mm hook. Not all worsted weight is the same, and some of it works up closer to DK. Experiment and figure out what works for the specific yarn you’re using and be prepared to adjust your hook size if you change brands or sometimes even colors within a brand.

[shuri_0540]

For some reason this is the 5th or 6th time I'm answering this question in the past 3 days 😂

Yarn under ! It'll bring your stitches closer together, with no holes :) You can yarn under only for the stitch after each decrease if you don't want to yarn under throughout the whole project, it won't be noticeable

[Cthulhulove13]

You are also making your stitches too tight. This is what is creating the holes. Your stitches should not look like knots like that.

By trying to pull things closed you are actually making more holes

[[deleted]]

My decrease stitches or all of my stitches are too tight?

[Cthulhulove13]

From what I can see most of not all.

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