In the last post I showed you how to make the right leaning decrease or k2tog (knit two together). Today I will show you the the k2tog’s counterpart, the left handed SSK. For righties these abbreviations tell you what to do when making the stitch: K2tog=knit two together, SSK=slip, slip, knit. I think about these decreases instead in terms of their slant. So, for me they are the right leaning decrease (k2tog for lefties) and left leaning decrease (ssk for lefties) since the abbreviation does not match how I make the stitch.
Click on any picture to enlarge
Left Handed SSK- Step 1
Start by putting your working needle (the left one) two stitches in from the tip of the right needle.
Left Handed SSK- Step 2
Insert your working needle from right to left. Basically, you are knitting into the back loop. It gets a little tricky and a little tight to get your needle in. I tend to pull on those two stitches first, creating some room, then inserting my needle right to left. I do this in the video at the end of this post.
Left Handed SSK- Step 4
Wrap yarn around the working needle from back to front.
Pull needle back out to the front.
Left Handed SSK- Step 5
Push old stitch off the needle. The arrow points to the two legs of the stitches that were decreased.
Here is a picture with the arrows pointing to the two stitches that were decreased.
If you watch how a right handed person performs the k2tog, you will see that these are the exact same steps used for us lefties on the ssk.
The following video shows both the k2tog (seen at the beginning of the row) and the ssk (seen at the end of the row).
Click on the link below to watch the video.