diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_pickle.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_pickle.py
index a7f0e3d3e37b1..5c79c57c1e020 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_pickle.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_pickle.py
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@
 from pandas import Index
 from pandas.sparse.tests import test_sparse
 from pandas.util import py3compat
-from pandas.util.decorators import knownfailureif
 from pandas.util.misc import is_little_endian
 
 class TestPickle(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -58,16 +57,18 @@ def compare(self, vf):
                     comparator = getattr(tm,"assert_%s_equal" % typ)
                     comparator(result,expected)
 
-    @knownfailureif(not is_little_endian(), "known failure of test_read_pickles_0_10_1 on non-little endian")
     def test_read_pickles_0_10_1(self):
+        if not is_little_endian():
+            raise nose.SkipTest("known failure of test_read_pickles_0_10_1 on non-little endian")
 
         pth = tm.get_data_path('legacy_pickle/0.10.1')
         for f in os.listdir(pth):
             vf = os.path.join(pth,f)
             self.compare(vf)
 
-    @knownfailureif(not is_little_endian(), "known failure of test_read_pickles_0_11_0 on non-little endian")
     def test_read_pickles_0_11_0(self):
+        if not is_little_endian():
+            raise nose.SkipTest("known failure of test_read_pickles_0_11_0 on non-little endian")
 
         pth = tm.get_data_path('legacy_pickle/0.11.0')
         for f in os.listdir(pth):
diff --git a/pandas/io/tests/test_stata.py b/pandas/io/tests/test_stata.py
index 794d303a68d79..4584976c41383 100644
--- a/pandas/io/tests/test_stata.py
+++ b/pandas/io/tests/test_stata.py
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@
 from pandas.io.stata import read_stata, StataReader, StataWriter
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
 from pandas.util.testing import ensure_clean
-from pandas.util.decorators import knownfailureif
 from pandas.util.misc import is_little_endian
 
 class StataTests(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -129,8 +128,10 @@ def test_read_dta4(self):
 
         tm.assert_frame_equal(parsed, expected)
 
-    @knownfailureif(not is_little_endian(), "known failure of test_write_dta5 on non-little endian")
     def test_write_dta5(self):
+        if not is_little_endian():
+            raise nose.SkipTest("known failure of test_write_dta5 on non-little endian")
+        
         original = DataFrame([(np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan)],
                              columns=['float_miss', 'double_miss', 'byte_miss', 'int_miss', 'long_miss'])
         original.index.name = 'index'
@@ -140,8 +141,10 @@ def test_write_dta5(self):
             written_and_read_again = self.read_dta(path)
             tm.assert_frame_equal(written_and_read_again.set_index('index'), original)
 
-    @knownfailureif(not is_little_endian(), "known failure of test_write_dta6 on non-little endian")
     def test_write_dta6(self):
+        if not is_little_endian():
+            raise nose.SkipTest("known failure of test_write_dta6 on non-little endian")
+        
         original = self.read_csv(self.csv3)
         original.index.name = 'index'