How to do K2tog, YO, K2tog and how to BO

Alex is going to be starting the decreases on her blanket, and here is a picture post to show her how to do it! (Click to enlarge photos!)

In this pattern, to keep the eyelets along the edge, you need to do a YO (an increase) on a row that you need to decrease by one stitch. To actually decrease by one stitch, you need to do two decreases because of the increase. It's kind of like algebra: -1+1-1 = -1. That's probably confusing. It doesn't really matter, but it explains why you need two K2tog's in each row.

K2tog is a decrease. It decreases by a single stitch. It means knit two together, and that's basically all you do. You just knit two stitches as if you were knitting a single stitch.

So when you get to the spot where you need to do the K2tog, you insert your right needle into TWO stitches instead of one.



Wrap the yarn and around and pull through as you would for a normal knit stitch. This is what it will look like. Two stitches decreased into one.



Now because you need to YO, you bring the yarn to the front



and then lay it back over the needle.



I originally showed you how to do a YO, K1. Here, you actually need to do YO, K2tog, so instead of inserting the needle now into one stitch, insert it into two stitches again, just like the previous K2tog.



And then wrap the yarn and pull through, and keep knitting like normal!




And when you are all done, the easiest way to bind off (BO) is to knit two stitches normally



and then take the first stitch (the farthest to the right on your right needle) and lift it up and over the second stitch using your left needle





and then just drop it from the left needle. You will have one stitch remaining on the right needle.


Knit another stitch and repeat. (Lift the first stitch on the right needle over the new stitch and drop it off.) And repeat until you have one single stitch left, and then pull the yarn through to knot it.