Have you ever wondered how to evenly space decreases in knitting? Easy! Just like finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, you will be doing the math with no issue!
What you need to know!
A couple things that you need to know:
First, how many stitches do you need to decrease?
Second, how many stitches are already on your needles or on your machine? The calculations work for both hand and machine knitting!
Example: 110 stitches on your needles/machine and you need to decrease 14 stitches evenly spaced.
Generally, since you do not want to decrease on the edge, you need to divide the stitches into 15 groups! This means you want to add the number of decreases plus one to determine the number of groups. (14+1 =15)
Now divide the total stitches you have on the needles by the number of groups to determine the frequency of the decreases (In this case the formula is 110/15 = 7.333333…) Yikes!
Every knitting book I have ever read wants to know what the remainder equals and so do we. But calculators do what they do….CALCULATE. I have had to rely on old division skills to get the remainder but here is a way to work with your calculator to figure out the remainder. We already know that 15 goes into 110, 7 whole times plus some, so multiply 7 x 15 = 105 then take the total number of stitches on the needle/machine and subtract 105 to get the remainder. The math: 110-105 =5. The remainder is 5!
What to do with the remainder?
This is where the discussion really gets exciting! What to do with the remainder? Ask knitters anywhere and the answer differs. It really depends on how detailed you are!
Let’s think about what the remainder means… we have 5 extra stitches to divide up! If you have 15 groups and normally 7 stitches in each group then 5 of the 15 groups get 1 extra stitch! 15/5 =3. So every third group gets an extra stitch. It was nice that it worked out evenly but that is not always the case!
Here is a much simpler approach! Divide the remainder in roughly equal whole numbers. In this case, 3 and 2. Then add 3 stitches to the group at the beginning and 2 stitches to the group at the end of the decrease row. Done! 7+3 =10 and 7+2=9. In the scheme of things, this is close enough! So the decreases will be done every 7 stitches across the row but starting on the 10th stitch and with 9 stitches in the last group!
So let’s really test it out! Inspired by the real rainbow, in the Rainbow Pajama Pillow pattern, machine knitters can put these new skills to the test and learn how to evenly space decreases in knitting! All the decreases make the rainbow arches form at just the correct degrees!
Let me know if you would like this pattern converted to a hand-knitting pattern!
