Know Your Crochet...How to start Crocheting, Part 6-Increasing & Decreasing

Rebekah Bowen
Dec 29, 2025
2 min read

In need of a good DYI project or want to brush up on you crochet knowledge, well my dears, you have come to the right place.

Don't be a square!

Of course, not all patterns will simply be squares or rectangles. Don't worry—achieving different shapes and sizes is a simple task, known as increasing and decreasing.

Increasing...going on up!

Adding an increase stitch INCREASES the number of stitches in your row or round by the desired amount. You can place an increase anywhere within the row or round by working two stitches into one, and the pattern will indicate where to make these increases. Patterns may denote an increase in several ways, such as (2SC, 2HDC, or 2DC), or simply as (inc), signifying that you should increase the specified stitch.

These images demonstrate how to perform an increase using single crochet (SC), half double crochet (HDC), and double crochet (DC).

Continue crocheting until you reach the stitch where the increase is needed. As shown in the illustration, crochet your (SC, HDC, DC) as usual, but add a second stitch in the same spot.

That's it... you can add as many increases to a row or round as necessary. For instance, if you have a row or round with 10 stitches and need to add 2 more, you would increase twice, resulting in a row or round with 12 stitches.

Increase with single crochet (SC)

Increase with half double crochet (HDC)

Increase with double crochet (DC)

Decreasing...going down!

Everything has an opposite, and the opposite of increase is DECREASE. Using a decrease stitch reduces the number of stitches in your row or round by the number you need. A decrease can occur anywhere along the row or round, as long as you have 2 stitches to work with, and just like increasing, your pattern will specify where you need to decrease. There are a few different ways a decrease is indicated in a pattern. It may be shown as (2sctog, 2hdctog, or 2dctog), where (tog) stands for together, referring to the act of crocheting 2 stitches together to create one. Alternatively, it can be shown as (dec), meaning you decrease the stitch you are using.

Decreasing is slightly different from increasing, but only a little. Increasing involves placing two stitches together in one spot, while decreasing involves using two separate stitches to create one. After doing this several times, it will become second nature, and you won't even need to think about it.