Balanced Increase & Decrease Knitting Calculator
Trying to increase or decrease in a balanced manner in knitting requires enough math that it’s virtually impossible to do inside your head.
These knitting calculators take in your current stitch count, and how many stitches you then need to either increase or decrease by. After clicking the “Calculate” button, we provide a balanced way to change your project by the given number of stitches.
Use the calculators below to determine how to increase or decrease evenly across your row or round of knitting. This knit calculator does not divide this difference across a number of rows, nor does it estimate how much yarn you’ll need.
Current Stitch Count: This is the number of stitches (sts) you currently have on your needle.
Balanced Knit Increase Calculator
Balanced Knit Decrease Calculator
How to Read The Balanced Results
For example, if you were trying to decrease 20 stitches from a current stitch count of 200, then the result would look like this:
k4, (k2tog, k8) 19 times, k2tog, k4
And this is how you would read that result:
- k4 = Knit 4
- (k2tog, k8) 19 times = Knit 2 together, then knit 8 stitches. Repeat that sequence 19 times.
- k2tog = Knit 2 together
- k4 = Knit 4
Abbreviations Used
Abbreviations are often used to help shorten the instructions by shortening longer words or descriptions. Within this calculator, we use a handful of them, and their descriptions are below:
| Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|
| k | Knit stitch |
| k2tog | Knit 2 stitches together; single right-leaning decrease. |
| M1 | Make one stitch knitwise; single knit increase. |
| () # times | The number of times to repeat what is inside the preceding parenthesis. |
How to Make 1 (M1): Pick up the bar between the stitch you knit and the one you’re about to knit, bringing the needle from front to back. You then knit into the back of the stitch.