Correcting mistakes and picking up dropped stitches

Picking Up a Dropped Stitch

• Lay your knitting flat. Locate the dropped stitch, with one or more horizontal strands running above it. Insert a crochet hook (a knitting needle can also work) from front to back into the open stitch. Ensure the "V" of the stitch is not twisted. Catch the lowest horizontal strand, which lies directly above the open stitch, with the crochet hook and pull it through the open stitch. You now have a stitch back on your crochet hook. Repeat this process with each subsequent horizontal strand until you reach the top-most stitch. Place this stitch back onto your knitting needle. Ensure it is correctly oriented and not twisted.

Correcting Mistakes in Your Knitting (e.g., a Purl Instead of a Knit, or Only Knitting One Strand with Double-Stranded Yarn)

• Sometimes a mistake is discovered a few rows down, for example, a purl stitch where a knit stitch should be. You'll proceed similarly, but you must first "drop" the stitch down.
• Knit until you are exactly above the incorrect stitch. Carefully slip the stitch off the needle so it unravels and runs down. Allow it to run down only until you reach the row directly below the error. You will now have an open stitch with horizontal strands above it.

Picking Up the Stitch:

• Correcting a Knit Stitch

  Insert the crochet hook from front to back into the open stitch. Catch the lowest horizontal strand from behind with the crochet hook and pull it through to the front of the stitch. Repeat this with each subsequent horizontal strand until you reach the row of your needle.

• Correcting a Purl Stitch

  Insert the crochet hook from back to front into the open stitch. Catch the lowest horizontal strand from the front with the crochet hook and pull it through to the back of the stitch. Repeat this with each subsequent horizontal strand until you reach the row of your needle. Alternatively, you can simply turn your work and correct the stitch as a knit stitch, as described above.Corre