Either you already know this, or you’re going to be mad no one told you sooner.

You know how there are a bunch of different directions for left- and right-leaning decreases, and twisted left- and right-leaning decreases, and left- and right-leaning decreases on the wrong side, and twisted left- and right-leaning decreases on the wrong side? And how it’s hard to keep them all straight? And how they’re different if you mount your stitches differently?

Yeah. You don’t ever ever ever need to think of them again. You just need to know one thing:

Whichever stitch your needle goes into first ends up on top on the right side of your fabric.

No really. It works every time. If you want the stitch on the right to end up on top, go into it first. If you want the stitch on the left to end up on top, go into it first.

Every time you come to a decrease, just say ‘hey, which stitch do I want on top?’ Then say ‘ok cool, do I need to do anything to the orientation of that stitch to have it come out the way I want (twisted vs not twisted)?’ If you need to change the orientation, go ahead and do that. Then just shove your needle into whichever stitch you want to have on top first, then go into the other stitches involved in the decrease, and you’re golden.

It works on the wrong side. It works for twisted stitches. It works for multiple decreases. Just figure out which stitch needs to be on top on the right side of your fabric, figure out if you need to do anything to the orientation of that stitch to make it twisted or not twisted, and go into that stitch first.

Like…it sounds so breathtakingly simple. But it means you don’t need to memorize instructions for:

• right-leaning knit decrease
• left-leaning knit decrease
• right-leaning purl decrease
• left-leaning purl decrease
• right-leaning twisted knit decrease
• left-leaning twisted knit decrease
• right-leaning twisted purl decrease
• left-leaning twisted purl decrease
• the multiple decrease versions of all eight of those

Because the instructions always boil down to ‘figure out which stitch should be on top on the right side of your fabric, figure out how you need your stitches to sit in order to be twisted or not twisted when you go in from that side, and go into that stitch first.’

Did everyone already realize that? Do you want to see what I mean about it working on twisted stitches or on the wrong side? Like…tell me how you feel about this.

Because I love when you find those spots where you can learn the pattern or the structure (Go into the top stitch first), rather than learning a whole series of steps (Slip 1 knitiwse. Slip another 1 knitwise. Return slipped stitches to the left needle. Insert the right needle from the right to the left into the back loops of both stitches. Knit both together. Ok now learn seven other versions of this to handle the other directions and twisted or not twisted or right side or wrong side.)! They’re how you get to understand your fabric, rather than just following instructions, and that’s just magic.

There’s a video of this over here, and that’s for sure the better way to see it. So really, go do that. But if we must, look at this:

The first decrease, we want the right stitch (A) on top of its neighbor to the left (B). So the needle needs to go into A first, then B. And then A ends up on top.

The second decrease, we want the left stitch (D) on top of its neighbor to the right (C). So the needle needs to go into D first then C. And then D ends up on top.

Again, go watch the video. There’s pointing and talking. It’ll explain it better!