How to pick up a dropped purl stitch

It happens to everyone. You’re knitting along and suddenly you realize you’ve dropped a stitch. No need to panic. Learn how to pick up a dropped stitch so you can’t even tell where it happened.

Although it’s scary to see a stitch fall and work your way down, creating a big gap in your work, it’s easier to fix the mistake than you might expect. Picking up a falling stitch is similar to repairing a trap stitch, but works backwards.

Once you have discovered the problem, work your way back to where the stitch fell. Then take a crochet needle and you can work with the stitch on the yarn ladder again, back on the spot and back on your needle.

Hook the Dropped Stitch

Grasp the loop of the fall stitch with your fingers while the right side of your knitting is facing you. Sometimes the loop is still at the top, sometimes a stitch runs down several rows. In both cases it helps to pull the loop up and away from the cross strands.

Pass a crochet hook through the loop from back to front.

Catch the first cross strand

Use the crochet hook to also catch the horizontal yarn strand that is directly above the stitch of your crochet hook.

Hold the hook up while you loop around the horizontal bar. This makes it easier to save the falling stitch further.

Pull the string through the loop

 

Pull the crossbar through the loop of the drop stitch. As you do this, the first loop should fall off the end of the crochet hook and leave the cross bar as a new loop.

As you pull the bar through the loop, you may need to hold on to the hook with your non-dominant hand. Sometimes the yarn pushes and pulls, so you just have to be careful and make sure the right loop is on the hook.

Work the Stitch up to the Top

Repeat the process of catching a horizontal strand and pulling it through the current loop until you reach the top of your work.

Place a stitch on the needle

Use the knitting hook to place the loop (dropped stitch) back on the left needle.

When you put the stitch on the needle, make sure that it is in the right direction so that it is ready for the next deflection. You do not want a twisted stitch there.

Continue Pourling

Once back in place, you can continue bending (or in some cases knitting) through the rest of the row.

Now that your work is back to normal, you won’t even notice where the line was missed.

You may be worried when you find mistakes in knitting, but it’s best to stay calm and fix the mistakes as soon as you notice them. You’ll be much happier with your finished work when you do it.