How To Fix a Dropped Stitch on the Purl Side

Today's tutorial is how to fix a dropped stitch from the purl side. To see how to fix a dropped stitch in stockinette from the knit side see our previous tutorial. Picking up stitches from the purl side requires a few more steps than from the knit side, but with a little practice you'll be a pro! In our next tutorial we'll be covering how to fix a dropped stitch in garter stitch. Do you have more techniques you'd like us to cover? Feel free to leave us a comment, and be sure to check back soon for our next tutorial!

The first step is to diagnose the problem. You can tell if you've dropped a stitch if you see bars across your knitting and a loop/stitch a few rows down.

Here's what the dropped stitch would look like from the stockinette side.

Pull up on the stitch with your fingers to make sure that your stitch doesn't drop down any further.

TIP: If you're not ready to fix your dropped stitch you can always keep it from getting worse by inserting a locking stitch marker in the stitch at this point.

Bring the bar between the stitches closest the the bottom edge to the front of your work and insert your crochet hook from the back side of your work towards you.

Using the crochet hook grab the bar in front of the stitch and pull up and away from you through the look, pulling the bar up and through the stitch.

You have now picked up one row of your dropped stitch!

NOTE: See how the crochet hook is now in front of the knitting? You will need to remove the crochet hook from the stitch in order to complete the next step.

Again bring the bottom bar closest to the cast on edge of your work in front of your dropped stitch and insert the crochet hook from the back of the knitting to the front.

Pull up on the bar and pull through the stitch.

Repeat the above steps with the last bar (last row)

Place the stitch on the needle with the right side of the stitch in the front. You've just fixed a dropped stitch from the purl side!

And here's a view from the knit side. You'd never know that a stitch was dropped!