The skpo and sk2po are another two techniques that are used to decrease the number of stitches on your knitting needles.

Although they are not as common as decreases I have previously made tutorials for (such as the k2tog and the ssk), they do show up fairly regularly and so are useful to know.

skpo = Slip one, knit one, pass slip stitch over.

This is a single decrease i.e. it reduces the number of stitches on your needles by 1.

Sometimes it is abbreviated to skp or sl1 k1 psso instead.

sk2po = Slip one, knit two together, pass slip stitch over.

This is a double decrease, so would reduce the number of stitches on your needles by 2.

You may sometimes see it abbreviated to sk2p or sl1 k2tog psso instead.

Both the skpo and sk2po are left-leaning decreases, so they will appear to lean slightly to the left when viewed from the front of your knitting.

That's why in knitting patterns you will often see these decreases on the same row as k2tog or k3tog decreases (which are right-leaning), because they balance each other out.

Although not shown on the following video, an sk3po is also possible, where you would slip a stitch, knit 3 stitches together and then pass the slipped stitch over (sl1 k3tog psso).