Knit 2 Together

You can knit a whole host of things with the simple knit and purl stitches.  However, when you move past scarves and pot holders, you may find you need to use some shaping.  Shaping can be intimidating.  There are numerous types of stitches that can increase or decrease your stitch count to help shape a project, whether it be a sweater, a shawl or a pair of socks.  And different designers have different favorites to achieve the same end.  While you can get into some fancier or more complicated decreases, I thought it might be nice to have a tutorial on what I feel is the most basic decrease.  Now, I say "most basic" but that does not mean it is inferior.  This is a hard working stitch you will come across in countless patterns.  The fundamentals of knitting, the knit and purl stitch being the most fundamental, are never inferior.  What I feel is the fundamental decrease is the "knit two together" stitch which is abbreviated k2tog in most patterns that use it.  I rather love the name of that stitch, too.  Knit two together just sounds so cozy and loving to me.  It's silly, I know, but since I feel knitting is creating and creating is part of loving, knit two together just sounds right.

So, I am working on a shawl that asks me to knit one stitch and then knit two together.  In the written portion of the pattern, those directions look like this:
k1, k2tog
I knit the first stitch using my working yarn. (The green is my working yarn, the white stitches are the stitches I will knit from the previous row.  You can see the little green knit stitch tucked near my thumb that was the k1 stitch.)

Now, you will not knit the next stitch but rather count over two stitches from the point of your lefthand needle, as shown in the photograph.  Your working yarn should still be held in the back, just as if you were working a single knit stitch.  Move your righthand needle to the left side of the two stitches you wish to knit together.  

Slip your righthand needle from the left front to the back right of the two stitches.  Your needle needs to pass through the loops of both of the stitches you wish to stitch together.  This is the same motion as knitting a single stitch, but you are simply passing your needle through two loops instead of one.  I have shown it here from two different angles.

After your righthand needle has gone from the front left to the back right of the two stitches, wrap your working yarn from left to right around your righthand needle.  Again, this is the same motion you would use to knit a single stitch.

Using your righthand needle, pull your working yarn that is looped around the needle from the back right to the front left of your two stitches.  Pull the loop all the way through to create your knew stitch on the righthand needle.  Again, this is the same motion you would make for a single knit stitch.

Pass the two stitches you have knitted together off the lefthand needle.  You have now created a new stitch on your righthand needle.  You have decreased your stitch count by one with the fantastic news it is not because you dropped a stitch.  Where there were two stitches, there is now only one.  You have successfully knit two together and worked a decrease in your knitting.