Patreon – Aoibhe Ni

If you’re a lover of the cute and cuddly world of amigurumi, and you want to improve the look of your finished crochet toys, this post is for you.
Crochet fabric is highly textured, but your eye can be drawn to any disturbances in that texture, rather than to your hard work and crochet skill. Making an invisible crochet decrease is a really good way of keeping your fabric smooth and unblemished.

Read on to see how this clever little trick is done.

Cut to the Chase, Aoibhe!
Click here for a small video demo

Start off with a piece of crochet

This is the beginning of one of my Patreon Amigurumi patterns.
To be specific, it’s my Meerkat’s bum.

I’ve gone round and round with regular increases (which are naturally pretty invisible, so we don’t need to worry so much about them showing up), and now it’s time to start decreasing towards the neck.

a piece of beige, unfinished amigurumi crochet is held in a pair of hands over a worn wooden table surface. — Meerkat bum!

The Lay of the Land

In my hand below, you can see the edge of my crochet fabric.
I’m working in UK double crochet / US single crochet stitches, as these are nice and dense and will make a good solid fabric for my amigurumi.

When you focus on my index fingers (behind the fabric), you’ll spot a stitch sitting between them. That’s my next stitch along, and it’s where I’ll begin the invisible crochet decrease.

a close up of a row of single crochet stitches, a steel hook and a pair of hands. — Locate the next stitch along

Ready to Crochet?

Press your hook through the FRONT LOOP ONLY of that highlighted stitch.
I like to stretch it out a little as this makes it easier to work the rest of the stitch without your hook getting caught later on.

A crochet hook in a piece of fabric — Hook into front loop

a crochet hook stretching out a stitch to make it looser — Biiiig stretch

Then, find the next stitch along, and work your hook into both sides of that stitch’s V.

a crochet hook being worked into a piece of single crochet fabric as an invisible decrease is made. — Hook into next stitch along

Yarn Over hook, and draw that Yarn Over back through only the stitch you just worked into.
Everything else on your hook stays where it is for now.

a yarn over on a steel crochet hook. The has been inserted into a an unfinished amigurumi toy. — Yarn Over…

Three loops on a crochet hook. — Draw Yarn Over back through both sides of the stitch’s V

Yarn Over again, and draw that Yarn Over through all the loops remaining on your hook.
Your Invisible Crochet Descrease is complete!

An invisible single crochet decrease stitch, half complete. — Yarn Over…

A completed invisible single crochet decrease stitch. — Draw Yarn Over through everything on hook

Spot the Invisible Decreases

In the image below, there are six invisible decreases.
Can you spot them?

That’s how good they are.

A close up of some amigurumi fabric, with several invisible decreases dotted throughout. As you might imagine, they are, indeed, invisible. — Spot the decreases

Invisible Crochet Decrease – A Spotter’s Guide

They’re elusive, that’s for sure.
But if you’re checking your stitches and counting as you go, it’s important that YOU can find them.

So, look at the Wrong Side of your fabric (i.e. the inside of your amigurumi), and you’ll spot the tell-tale signs of your decreases there. Use the slider below to see my decreases in situ.
(They’re the little horizontal lines the blue arrows are pointing towards)

And if you’d like to see more of my Crochet Buddies collection, you can browse them all here.
Joining my Patreon family will get you one or two of these patterns every month as a gift – depending on your chosen tier level.

I hope you like ’em!