Invisible Decrease vs Regular Decrease: The Fix for Lumpy Amigurumi

Your amigurumi looks great until it starts to close. Then the smooth curve turns bumpy, and a row of small lumps appears exactly where the shape narrows.

Almost always, the cause is the decrease you used.

Two stitches, one abbreviation

Patterns write dec or sc2tog, both meaning "turn two stitches into one." But there are two different ways to do that, and they do not look the same.

The regular decrease (sc2tog)

Insert the hook into the next stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop. Insert into the following stitch, yarn over, pull up a loop. You now have three loops on the hook. Yarn over and pull through all three.

It works. It is also bulky: you have pulled the full body of two stitches together, and all that yarn has to go somewhere. It sits proud of the surface as a small bump.

The invisible decrease

Insert the hook into the front loop only of the next stitch. Then, without yarning over, insert into the front loop only of the following stitch. You have two loops on the hook plus the working loop. Yarn over, pull through the first two loops, then yarn over and pull through the remaining two.

The key difference is that you only work the front loops. The back loops of both stitches stay behind, tucked inside the piece where nobody sees them. The result sits flat and reads as a single ordinary stitch.

Why it matters more in amigurumi than anywhere else

In a scarf or a blanket, a slightly bulky decrease disappears into drape and texture. Amigurumi has neither. The fabric is tight, stuffed firm, and viewed from every angle, so every irregularity is on display.

Decreases also cluster. A pattern closing a head might work six decreases in a single round. Six small bumps evenly spaced around a curve do not read as six small bumps: they read as a ring, and the eye finds it instantly.

Worse, a bulky decrease loosens the fabric around it, which is one of the ways stuffing starts to show through. If you have been fighting that, our guide to why amigurumi gets holes covers the other causes.

Which one does my pattern mean?

If it is an amigurumi pattern written in the last decade and it says dec, it almost certainly means the invisible decrease. Many designers now assume it as the default and do not spell it out.

Look for these signals:

• "inv dec" or "invisible decrease": unambiguous.
• "dec" with no further explanation, in a stuffed project: assume invisible.
• "sc2tog" spelled out in full: the designer may specifically want the regular version, though many use it interchangeably.

When in doubt, use the invisible decrease. On amigurumi it is very rarely the wrong choice.

When the regular decrease is right

It is not obsolete. Flat work, garments, and anything with drape are all fine with sc2tog, and it is marginally faster. The regular decrease also produces a slightly firmer, less elastic join, which is occasionally what a structural piece wants.

The rule of thumb: if it will be stuffed and seen from all sides, go invisible. Otherwise either works.

A common mistake worth naming

When working the invisible decrease, it is easy to accidentally yarn over after inserting into the first front loop, out of pure habit. That produces a lopsided stitch that is neither one decrease nor the other.

Both hook insertions happen first. Only then does the first yarn over. Slow down for the first dozen and it becomes automatic.

See it done

Decreasing is one of the 14 core skills taught in every Yon Crochet video lesson, filmed close up in both right-handed and left-handed versions so you can watch the loops rather than infer them from a diagram.

And if the notation itself is the part giving you trouble, our free Pattern Trainer teaches reading decreases in context, including how to spot when a round is shaping rather than going straight.