You probably know what a dropped stitch is, and how terrifying it can be to see it sticking out on the surface of your project.
I’ll spare you the unnecessary descriptions and scary real-life stories.
Let’s talk about fixing dropped stitches in any stitch pattern, in any part of any knitting project, finished or still in progress.
In this mini-course, we’ll see how we can pick up a dropped knit stitch and a dropped purl stitch without using a crochet hook or any additional tools.
I’ll show you how to fix a dropped stitch in stockinette fabric, in ribbing, in garter stitch, in brioche, and in complex stitch patterns like lace.
We’ll learn to fix dropped stitches in the middle of a row or round and those that drop at the end of a row and ruin the side edges of our project (ouch!).
Finally, I’ll describe a simple way to fix a dropped stitch that you notice after the project is finished and the stitches are bound off.
None of these ways requires unravelling a single row of your project. We’ll fix those naughty stitches in the most efficient and effective way.
And we’ll fix dropped stitches no matter whether they dropped accidentally, or whether we dropped them on purpose to fix a mistake a few rows or rounds below.
To get the most out of this mini-course, take any yarn and needles and cast on 15 stitches. Make a small swatch (10 rows or so) with the first 5 stitches worked in stockinette stitch, the next 5 stitches worked in “purl 1, knit 1” ribbing, and the last 5 stitches worked in garter stitch.
Let’s get started!
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED KNIT STITCH WITHOUT A CROCHET HOOK
No matter what kind of dropped stitch we want to fix, the first thing we should do when we notice this stitch is to secure it with a locking stitch marker or a safety pin.
This process is explained at the very beginning of this tutorial and the video tutorial below.
LET’S PRACTICE
With the right side of your swatch facing you, knit two stitches and slide the third one off the left needle. It will be the stitch at the very centre of the section worked in stockinette stitch.
Pull the swatch sideways to let the dropped stitch ladder a few rows down, then use the steps described in the video tutorial above to pick up the dropped stitch and return it to the needles without using a crochet hook.
Now you can fix a dropped knit stitch!
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED PURL STITCH WITHOUT A CROCHET HOOK
When we drop a purl stitch, we have two options.
1. We can turn the work to the wrong side where the dropped stitch shows up as a knit, and use the same steps we follow when we fix a knit stitch to return this little fella to its place on the needle.
2. Or, we can stay on the right side of the fabric and pick up this stitch as a purl.
The second half of this tutorial explains how to do it step by step. These steps are also demonstrated in the video tutorial below.
LET’S PRACTICE
Work to the purl stitch at the centre of the ribbing section on your test swatch, and drop this stitch off the left needle.
Pull the swatch sideways to let the stitch go down for a few rows, then use the steps described in the video to bring it back to the needles.
Now let’s use our newly acquired skills to bring the dropped stitches back to the needles without disrupting the stitch pattern of our project.
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED STITCH IN STOCKINETTE STITCH
This one is the easiest to fix. Because on the right side of the fabric, all stitches show up as knits, we simply use the steps we followed when we learned to fix a knit stitch, and easily turn the unravelled strands into a column of stitches.
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED STITCH IN RIBBING
When the oops happens in ribbing, we fix stitches as knits when we rebuild a column of knit stitches, and we fix them as purls to rebuild a column of purls.
This approach is the same for all types of ribbing.
LET’S PRACTICE
If you worked through the previous two exercises and fixed a dropped knit and a dropped purl, you know how to fix dropped stitches in ribbing. But it never hurts to practice some more.
To cement your drop-stitch-fixing skills, drop two or three stitches out of the five stitches in the ribbing section of your swatch. Then fix those stitches as knits in each column of knit stitches and as purls in each column of purls.
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED STITCH IN GARTER STITCH
Fixing a dropped stitch in garter stitch is tricky.
Even though we knit all stitches in every row to form this stitch pattern, in reality, the columns of garter stitch are formed by alternating knits and purls. We understand it clearly when we work garter stitch in the round.
That’s why when we fix a dropped stitch in a garter stitch fabric, we rebuild one stitch as a knit and the next stitch as a purl.
The big question is – do we start rebuilding a column of stitches with a knit or with a purl?
The answer to this question and the detailed description of every step is over here and in the video tutorial below.
LET’S PRACTICE
By now, you have a very good understanding of how dropped knits and purls can be fixed. Let’s put it to the test.
Drop the stitch at the centre of the garter section of your swatch and let it go down for a few rows.
Use the tips in the video tutorial to figure out whether you should start to rebuild the column with a knit or with a purl, and then rebuild that column by alternating knits and purls.
You are now a pro at fixing dropped stitches!
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED STITCH IN BRIOCHE
Things get even more complicated when we drop a stitch in brioche fabric.
Don’t worry, it is fairly easy to bring that stitch back to the needles without messing up the texture of brioche.
Simply follow the steps in this tutorial.
All the stitch patterns that we’ve just discussed are pretty straightforward, but what do we do if we drop a stitch in a complex stitch pattern with a multi-stitch pattern repeat, like lace, for example?
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED STITCH IN LACE
Whenever we can, we rebuild each column of stitches in pattern, but it can be difficult to do when we drop stitches on purpose to fix a mistake in a lace pattern.
In this case, we do keyhole knitting surgery – we unravel one pattern repeat, fix the mistake, and re-knit this section row by row in pattern.
Here’s how we do it step by step.
When a stitch is dropped in the middle of a row or round, we can easily detect its neighbours and find the loose strand (or strands) that help us ladder the stitch up the work.
Things are not as straightforward when we drop an edge stitch, the one that is at the beginning or at the end of a row.
When it happens, the edge quickly turns into a seemingly hopeless mess. No worries, that mess is not hopeless at all. It is a set of loops that we can easily turn into a neat side edge.
Let’s see how we do it when the edge is made in stockinette stitch and in garter.
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED EDGE STITCH IN STOCKINETTE STITCH
Follow the three steps described over here, or watch them in the video tutorial below.
HOW TO FIX A DROPPED EDGE STITCH IN GARTER STITCH
The steps described over here and in the video tutorial below show not only how to fix a dropped edge stitch in a garter fabric formed by knit stitches, but also in a garter fabric formed by purls.
These steps will prepare you for fixing dropped stitches at the side edges of your projects in any situation.
All methods discussed in this mini-course explain how to fix a dropped stitch in a project that is still on the needles.
But what do we do when we notice a dropped stitch sticking out bluntly from a finished project, with the stitches bound off and yarn ends woven in?
We hide it. Plain and simple.
1. Move the stitch to the wrong side of the project
Thread a piece of yarn into a wool needle and insert the wool needle into the loose stitch and under a horizontal strand of a stitch above it.
Of course, it is best to use the same yarn that the project is made of, but to help you see the process, I’ve got a piece of yarn in a contrasting colour.
Pull this yarn through and tie the ends with a simple knot.
Weave in the tails and enjoy the almost-perfect look of the spot where a stitch was sticking out just a moment ago.
As you see, even though I used yarn in a contrasting colour, it doesn’t show on the right side of the fabric.
Such an easy fix to such an annoying issue!
No matter where you notice a dropped stitch in your project, now you know how to easily fix it without disrupting the texture of the fabric.
SAVE IT FOR LATER
