How to Pick Up a Dropped Stitch in Knitting

How to Pick Up a Dropped Stitch in Knitting

by Sammi Polascik

You’re knitting along, needles clacking happily, and all of a sudden….you drop a stitch 😮

Does this mean you have to frog a ton of work?

Nope! There’s an easy fix using just a couple of tools to help you pick up those pesky drop stitches. 

How to Pick Up a Dropped Stitch:

Step 1: Gather your materials (and take a deep breath!)

  • Your knitting project

  • Similar size crochet hook to the needles you’re using for knitting 

  • Stitch marker

Step 2: Clip your stitch marker to the loop just below where the stitch was dropped

  • For a dropped purl stitch: clip the loop with the dropped strand of yarn in FRONT of the loop 


  • For a dropped knit stitch: clip the loop with the dropped strand of yarn in BACK of the loop 


    Step 3: Use your crochet hook to pull the dropped strand through the loop

    • For a dropped purl stitch: Insert the crochet hook from the BEHIND and pull the strand through, placing the fixed stitch on the left needle 


    • For a dropped knit stitch: Insert the crochet hook from the FRONT and pull the strand through, placing the fixed stitch on the left needle 


      Step 4: Remove stitch marker & keep working!

      • Purl:

      • Knit:

      Dropped stitches don’t have to be intimidating any more - you can use this as needed during your knitting project!

      Now that you can fix stitches with confidence, why not try these knitting kits:

       

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