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Dropped Stitches

It happens to the best of us. You are busy knitting and purling and all of a sudden you get distracted and next thing you know, you look at your knitting and there it is, a big hole and ladders going all the way down. You panic and right away you see your many hours of work going down the drain! But wait! Before you go ahead and throw the knitting loom at the first person you see, check out this video. It will show you how to pick up a dropped knit stitch. Try it, it may just save your project.

How about a purl stitch? Here is a video demonstrating how to pick up a dropped purl stitch.

Written instructions on Picking up a Dropped Knit Stitch:
1. Insert a crochet hook from front to back through the loop of the bottommost dropped stitch.

2. With the crochet hook, catch the bottommost ladder (horizontal piece of yarn connecting one stitch to the other) and pull it through the loop of the dropped stitch. Thus creating the new loop stitch.

3. Repeat step 2 above until you have picked up all the ladders and you are at your last row/round of your fabric.

4. Remove the crochet hook from that piece of yarn.

5. When you’ve picked up the last dropped stitch, place that last loop onto empty pege and continue working.

But how about if you have a boatload of stitches that you have dropped or you have just realized that instead of knitting one entire row you purled it and you must go back to that row and fix it. First, locate the row/round below the one with “trouble”. Then, pass a piece of contrasting color yarn through EACH of the stitches, this yarn will hold all the stitches in place so you do not lose any other stitches. Now the scary part, take all the loops off the pegs and unravel all the stitches until you reach the row/round with the piece of scrap yarn. Next, place the stitches that are on the scrap yarn back on the knitting loom.

I found another great source for picking up dropped stitches, it is for knitting on needles but the same concept applies when picking up a dropped stitch. The source is from VogueKnitting.com

Happy looming!
Isela

8 comments

  1. Wow, that looked super easy! Thanks for showing us how to pick up stitches. Makes the loom look more inviting knowing that our work can be recovered.

  2. PS: just posted on twitter, facebook, pinterest and google+.

  3. some patterns tell you to turn the knitting board when you get to the end of the row, some don’t . Do I have to and what is the purpose of turning it?

    1. Hi Nancy,

      If you are using a knitting board where you have 2 rows of pins that you are working with you will need to hook over on both boards and an easy way to do this is by turning the knitting board around, but if you are single knitting you are not working with 2 rows, jut a big circle.

  4. I’m making the slouchy hat and today I noticed I dropped a stitch after I had completed about 5 inches. So I was glad I saw this video on Friday & could correct my error without having to frog so much work.
    Thanks!

  5. This is just what I needed today! I can’t tell you how many times I have dropped a stitch and not known how to mend it without ripping out and starting from ground zero. Thanks! (I also shared this post on facebook and twitter = 23 points total for me)

  6. Thanks Pat! I use both sides and it is easier for me to lace it without turning so I will just keep doing it like I have been. I have the 10 inch and 28 inch knitting boards and am giving some serious thought to getting the new all in one board. Happy stitiching yall!!

  7. knitting with knitting loom (28″) both rows. Can you show me as well as written instructions how to pick up dropped stitches my othert alternative is to rip some rows in this case do i rip to beginning? Can i take just so many rows off? if I can do this -how do I rehook thw stitches on thwn pins? Help!! Please

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