Stitch Technique: Invisible Decrease for Double and Single Crochet

Have you ever had a great idea but couldn’t bring it to fruition because you were missing one little piece of information? Not that I’ve ever been there with crafting or anything…

If you’re beginning crochet, you may start envisioning projects in your head as you learn more about the skill. But perhaps, like me, you find yourself missing one little piece of information.

For example, take the first hat I crocheted. Actually, there were lots of problems with that project. First, I didn’t know how to work in the round. That was kinda an issue… Then, I was trying to shape it a certain way: I had this vision in my head of a slouch hat that billowed out like a mushroom, then tightened at the band.

Problem number one was how to work in the round. Problem two was how to make my work get bigger. The third problem is what we’ll talk about today: how to make my work get smaller.

The solution I came to on that project was to skip spaces and crochet fewer stitches, which is a viable option. However, this method leaves holes. It ended up okay for the hat, since I wanted a more open look to the hat. However, in other projects, gaping holes are unattractive.

That’s where the invisible decrease comes in. I didn’t learn this technique until I’d been crocheting many years, but I wish I had found it sooner! It’s super easy to do once you get the hang of it, and projects look so much better using this technique.