In my patterns the most common tool I use to create my shapes is “increasing” and “decreasing”. This is a basic stitch that nearly every crochet pattern uses, so it is important to learn early on. This blog is intended to give simple step by step instructions on how to do each. You can use increasing and decreasing with any kind of stitch, but for this tutorial I will only be using Single Crochet because that is the stitch I typically use in my patterns. Decreasing becomes a little trickier for longer stitches (half double, double crochet, etc.) because there are additional yarn overs, but the basic concept stays the same Increasing Increasing is simply turning one stitch into two stitches. Instead of single crocheting once into a stitch, you will do it twice. It is important not to do your stitches too tight around an increase because it can create a funny bump where the two stitches are. Decreasing Decreasing is turning two stitches into one stitch. There are a few methods to do this, and this is what I believe the easiest way to be. Insert your hook into the single crochet, yarn over, pull your hook out of the single crochet, insert your hook into the next single crochet, yarn over, and pull your hook out of the single crochet. Yarn over again and pull the final yarn over through all three loops on the hook. And there you have it! Hopefully you find this quick how to useful, but if you have any questions please contact me!