How can I do my Poké Ball decreases so they appear tighter?

Question

A continuation of my Poké Ball woes: I want to improve my decrease technique. Consider the image of the tops of my balls (where the balls are finished and tied off):

The very top where the tie-off occurs has already been addressed in another question, but that does not help the decreases leading up to the end. The picture hides it more than it appears in real life, but you can easily see the Poly-fil between the stitches.

To clarify, this is how I decrease:

1. Insert your hook into the next stitch.
2. Yarn over and draw the yarn through the stitch.
3. Insert your hook into the next stitch.
4. Yarn over and draw the yarn through the stitch.
5. Yarn over and draw the yarn through all 3 loops on your hook.

The issue is exacerbated with a project where multiple decreases - both beside and on top of each other - occur.

How can I do my Poké Ball decreases so they appear tighter?

Answer 1

I think you'll enjoy trying what's called the "invisible decrease".

By running through two stitches but not actually making the base of both of them, it tightens up the space and only shows a single stitch. It can actually be challenging to see where the decrease is after it's completed.

From the linked article (there are images included for both right and left-handed users to help if you visit the blog):

1. Insert the hook into the front loop of the first stitch (2 loops on hook). DO NOT YARN OVER:
2. Insert the hook into the front loop of the next stitch. To do this, you’ll need to swing the hook down first so you can insert the hook under the front loop. (3 loops on hook)
3. Yarn over and draw through the first two loops on the hook. (2 loops on hook)
4. Yarn over and draw through both loops on the hook. Invisible decrease completed

As a note, because this is specifically geared towards amigurumi figures, it expects that you're using single crochets. I'm not sure if there's an adjustment that allows this to work with other size stitches.

To compare, here are images that show the three options for decreases.

These first two images are skipping a stitch and the standard single crochet two together (sc2tog). In both cases, the decrease is pretty obvious.

And here's what the invisible decrease looks like, which is nearly indistinguishable compared to the other two: