tutorial – the k3tog tbl left-leaning double decrease

In another post I’ve already showed you how to work the sl1-k2tog-psso left-leaning double decrease. In this tutorial I’ll show you another way to reduce 3 stitches down to 1 stitch in a left-leaning way: knit 3 together through the back loop, or k3tog tbl for short.

This decrease requires fewer steps than the sl1-k2tog-psso one, but it can be a tad fiddly to work. And while the result may look a tad different, in most patterns it really won’t matter that much which specific left-leaning double decrease you use. So, just try it out and use the one that works best for you.

Materials

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Yarn: * Paintbox Yarns Simply DK, a good value, good quality 100% acrylic yarn, here in the color 128 Lime Green.

Needles: * KnitPro Zing Fixed Circular Needles. In this tutorial, I used the 4 mm (US 6) size with a cable length of 80 cm (32 inches).

Working a k3tog tbl step by step

1. First, work your way across the row until you’ve reached the point where you want to make the decrease. In this case, I want to work the double decrease over the 3 stitches in the middle of the swatch.

2. To start, insert the right-hand needle knit wise (from right to left) into the back loop of the next 3 stitches on the left-hand needle.

3. Wrap the yarn around the needle…

4. … and pull it through the 3 stitches.

5. To finish the k3tog tbl decrease, slide the original 3 stitches off the left-hand needle.

The below picture shows how it looks after 2 more decrease rows have been worked.