Knitting decrease
calculator
Find where to decrease, keep your stitches balanced, and get back to the part you love.
Your stitch counts
Your pattern instruction
Spacing overview
Read left to right in working order. Each block is a group of operations, not a stitch chart or a scale drawing.
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Show each step
When your pattern says “decrease evenly”
This tool distributes a specified number of decreases across one row or one round. Enter the stitches currently on your needle and the number your pattern asks you to remove. The result includes every original stitch once.
A worked example
With 154 stitches and 4 decreases, you finish with 150 stitches. Four k2tog operations use 8 original stitches and produce 4; the other 146 are knitted normally.
What do the abbreviations mean?
K followed by a number means knit that many stitches normally. k2tog means knit the next two stitches together into one. Each operation reduces the total by one.
Why are some intervals different?
Stitches are whole numbers. When the spacing does not divide exactly, neighboring intervals may differ by one stitch. Flat rows generally leave approximately half an interval at the ends; round spacing continues across the beginning-of-round marker.
Can I use this for ribbing, lace, or shaping a hat?
This is a plain-knit spacing aid. It does not preserve ribbing or lace repeats, reserve edge stitches, choose left/right shaping, or plan decreases over multiple rows. Follow your pattern for those details and swatch when fit matters.
What are the limits?
Use 2–5,000 current stitches and 1–1,000 changes. A k2tog plan cannot remove more than half the stitches in one pass. M1 plans place at most one increase in each gap: a flat row has one fewer gap than stitches, while a joined round also has a gap across its marker.
Technique references: Purl Soho’s M1 definitions and Brooklyn Tweed’s k2tog definition.