Fixing a dropped stitch, step by step

First, stop the run

A dropped stitch is a loop that escaped the needle and unravelled downward. Every row it falls through leaves a horizontal strand behind it, and those strands stack up into the shape every knitter recognises: a ladder. The strands are called rungs, and the count is the good news. One rung equals one row. Count the rungs and you know exactly how far the stitch fell and how many stitches you have to rebuild.

Before anything else, secure the loop at the bottom of the ladder. Slide a locking stitch marker or a small safety pin through it, or park it on a spare needle. An unsecured loop can run further every time the fabric moves, and a stitch that reaches the cast-on edge stops being a ladder job and becomes a rework. Pin first, breathe second, fix third.

What you need

• A crochet hook the same size as your needles, or one size smaller, measured in millimetres first. Working on 5.0 mm needles, reach for a 4.0 mm or 5.0 mm hook (US G-6 or H-8). A smaller hook slips through tight loops more easily; the loop it pulls is sized by the rung, not by the hook. Pattern naming a hook in US or old UK terms only? The needle and hook size converter translates all three systems by lookup, because no formula survives the crossing.
• A flat surface and decent light. Laddering is close work, and rungs hide in fuzzy or dark yarn.
• Your stitch count for the row, from the pattern. You will check against it at the end.

pin it first. a running stitch waits for no one

Ladder up a knit stitch: stockinette, right side

This is the common case, a stitch that fell out of stockinette or any knit column, with the right side of the fabric facing you. From this side the fallen stitch is a knit stitch on every rung, so one motion, repeated, climbs the whole ladder.

1. Lay the work flat with the right side facing you. Find the dropped loop at the bottom of the ladder and the rungs stacked above it. The rung nearest the loop is the first row you will rebuild.
2. Insert the crochet hook into the dropped loop from front to back, so the hook tip sits behind the loop and the open throat of the hook faces the rung above.
3. Catch that lowest rung with the hook. The rung lies behind the loop; hook it and draw it through the loop, toward you. The rung becomes a new loop on your hook, one row rebuilt, sitting in the correct knit shape.
4. Repeat with the next rung up: catch it, draw it through the loop on the hook. Work rung by rung, lowest first, and keep each new loop relaxed rather than snug.
5. Stop when no rungs remain and the loop on your hook sits level with the live stitches on the needle. That was the last row.
6. Slip the loop back onto the left needle without twisting it: the right leg of the stitch should sit in front of the needle. Then work it as the pattern directs and carry on.

Worked a loop that looks crossed or twisted on the needle? It went back on backwards. Slip it off, turn it the other way, and remount it. A twisted stitch knits up as a small tight cross in the fabric, visible forever, and it takes ten seconds to prevent.

Ladder up a purl stitch, and garter stitch

Purl stitches turn up in ribbing columns, in reverse stockinette, and on alternate rungs of garter stitch. The difference is where the rung sits: for a purl stitch the rung lies in front of the dropped loop, not behind it.

1. Insert the hook into the dropped loop from back to front, so the tip emerges on the side facing you, in front of the rung.
2. Reach the hook over the rung, catch it, and draw it back through the loop, away from you. The new loop carries its purl bump on the side facing you, which is exactly what a purl stitch is.
3. Repeat rung by rung, checking each new loop for its bump before climbing on.

If the purl motion fights you, use the flip. Turn the work over: on the back of the fabric, a purl column reads as a knit column (in ribbing and reverse stockinette the two sides swap stitch for stitch), so you can ladder up the familiar knit way from behind and turn back when you reach the top. For garter stitch, stay on one side and alternate instead: garter rows alternate knit and purl as you climb, so the rungs alternate too, one with the rung behind the loop, the next with the rung in front. Follow the rung, not a rhythm, and check each rebuilt loop against its neighbours in the column.

How far it fell decides the fix

Finish the rescue properly

Three checks before you knit on. Count: count the stitches on the needle and compare with the pattern count for the row; a rescue that quietly gains or loses a stitch moves the problem instead of ending it. Mount: look at the rescued stitch on the needle and confirm it sits untwisted, matching its neighbours. Tension: a laddered column often reads a little tight, because the rungs only hold the yarn that was already there. Gently stretch the fabric up, down and across to help the yarn settle, and coax a whisper of slack from the stitches either side with a needle tip if one loop looks starved. Washing and blocking the finished piece evens out what is left, which is one more reason the fix is worth doing calmly rather than tightly.