5 Top Knitting Mistakes and how to fix them !
Knitting is the ultimate zen activity—until you realize you’ve been knitting for two hours only to find you’ve dropped a stitch 30 rows back. Oops. But don’t worry, you’re not alone! Every knitter, whether a newbie or a seasoned pro, makes mistakes. The important part is learning how to fix them (without throwing your project across the room in frustration). Here are the five most common knitting mistakes and how to handle them—hopefully with minimal tears and some humour.
1. Dropped Stitches: Mariana's Trench
So you’re cruising along, feeling like a knitting genius, and then bam! A stitch slips off your needle and free-falls down your rows like it’s in some extreme bungee-jumping competition. You start to wonder if your scarf is now a piece of avant-garde art.
What causes it: Knitting too close to the edge of your needles and treating your stitches like Tom Cruise hanging from a cliff in a Mission Impossible movie is a great way to lose a stitch or two. Also, attempting a new stitch manoeuvre can leave you feeling clumsy and cause you to stumble with your knitting needles and accidentally releasing your hard earned loops. However it happened, there's a very easy fix, so don't freak out, just keep on reading!
How to fix it: There's more than one way to pick up your lost stitches and climb back up that ladder, but personally I like the crochet hook method best. Grab a crochet hook like you're a knitting superhero and go in and rescue that poor little stitch by laddering it back up to where it belongs...and try not to let it unravel your soul in the process. It's rather easy peasy once you wrap your brain around it, but here's a video tutorial by Adore Knitting to help you out!
Prevent it: If you're a beginner, try not working to "close to the edge" by keeping your stitches a safe distance away from the tips of your needles. Other than that, take a break every so often to check your stitches, or watching them like a hawk while you knit.
2. Uneven Tension: The Yoga of Knitting
Ever notice how your stitches are either so tight they could double as armour, or so loose they resemble a fishnet? Yeah, that’s uneven tension at its finest. As a beginner, it's very common to struggle with getting your tension consistent, not to mention just right.
What causes it: There are some other factors besides experience that can affect tension such as yarn type, needle size, knitting style, and body position. Keep all that in mind next time you pick up those sticks...I know, like you didn't have enough on your mind.
How to fix it: Here's a short video by Studio Knit all about knitting tension. As a newbie, the best thing you can do is the hardest, which is to RELAX! I know, you're tense learning this new thing and you really just want to get that darn needle to go where it needs to go without dropping a stitch, (go back to #1 if that happens). You just have to tell yourself - the more you knit, the more natural it will feel, and the more natural it starts to feel, the more you will be able relax. That's probably not what you wanted to read but if you just keep on practicing and let Father Time do his thing, I promise you'll get there. In the meantime, you can try adjusting how you hold your yarn. You want it to flow through your fingers like you’re casually eating spaghetti, not wrestling a python. And remember, if the unevenness is minimal, blocking your project at the end is your “get out of jail free” card...so yay!
Prevent it: Honestly, there's not a whole lot you can do to prevent knitting too tight or too loose other than being mindful of it while you're knitting. Having a good posture while knitting can also help keep tension consistent but other than that, maybe don’t knit right after a stressful day of Zoom meetings, or before you’ve had your coffee. Knitting should be chill but it may not feel like it at first, and that's totally normal.
3. Yarn Overs: The Great Loop Dilemma
You’re knitting along, and suddenly you find yourself with an extra stitch and maybe even a gap in your knitting. Sound familiar? Don't panic, but what you've got here is a rogue yarn over which can mess up your stitch count and create design elements you might not want in your fabric. Now that you know what it is, let's do something about it!
What causes it: If you're a beginner or novice knitter, you might not understand how or why you keep getting holes in your work or extra stitches you don't know what to do with. The likely culprit is the yarn was brought to the front before a knit when it should have been kept in the back (or vice versa for a purl). This is an actual knitting technique called a yarn over, used especially when doing lace work because it creates beautiful intentional gaps in the fabric. However, when done unintentionally, yarn overs tend to happen when we are mindlessly switching from knits to purls and not paying full attention.
How to fix it: First, take a deep breath. If you notice a yarn over where it shouldn’t be, it's not the end of the world. You can't simply knit the two stitches together to eliminate the loop, because that's how a hole is created. If you notice the mistake in the current row you are working on, you can simply tink back (knit backwards) to where you were and release that loose piece of yarn, but if you notice something weird further down your work, you might have to frog back a few rows to fix the error. It's a bit of a pain, but your project might thank you later for the extra love. Here is a video tutorial by Astraknots that shows you how to tink and how to fix your accidental yarn over.
Prevention tip: Keep a close eye on your knits and purls, especially if you're a new knitter. Those accidental yarn overs can sneak in when you're least expecting it, especially if you're distracted by a plot twist in your favourite show.
4. Adding or Missing Stitches: The Mystery of Multiplying Stitches
You cast on 40 stitches, and by some knitting black magic, you end up with 43. Where did those extra stitches come from? Are they multiplying like wet gremlins when when you're not looking? Perhaps as equally mysterious and frustrating is finding out you've lost a few stitches along the way, especially if your pattern depends on precise stitch count. Luckily most projects are forgiving and such mistakes can usually be corrected.
What causes this: There are several ways to accidentally increase or decrease stitches. We spoke about accidental yarn overs (#3), but you can also accidentally create stitches by inadvertently knitting into the space between the stitches. Inversely, you can accidentally lose stitches but dropping them or knitting them together, which happens rather effortlessly for me when I use fingering or lace weight yarn.
How to fix it: However it happened, if you notice your mistake mid-row, simply tink back (remember that word?) back to your mistake. If you notice much later and can't figure out where it came from, you can knit two together to erase the extra stitch like it never happened or make a new one and pretend you’ve been in total control this whole time. If it’s more severe (like your 40 stitches have morphed into 50), I'm afraid that was likely do to a miscount and it might be time for a little frogging. Go ahead and cry—just don’t let the tears get on the yarn.
Prevent it: Count your stitches at the end of each row, especially when you’re deep into a Netflix marathon.
5. Wrong Gauge: Knitting Russian Roulette
In knitting (and crochet), gauge refers to the number of stitches and rows in a specific measurement, typically per inch or per four inches, when using a particular yarn and needle size. A gauge swatch is a small sample of knitting (or crocheting) created to determine tension, stitch count, and size. Knitting that swatch and "getting gauge" as indicated in the pattern is a crucial aspect of knitting, especially for garments and fitted items, as it ensures that the final product will be the correct size and shape. But come on, gauge swatches are for perfectionists, right? Who has time for that when you’re dying to jump into a new project? Fast forward to the end when your "perfectly-sized" sweater could now fit a toddler—or a sumo wrestler.
What causes it: We've all done it, at least once, maybe twice - thrown caution to the wind and cast-on with reckless abandon without even so much as a gauge swatch attempted. Sometimes the gamble pays off, other times you find yourself on the losing end of knitting Russian Roulette. But what happens when you make your gauge swatch and it's all off? Well, there are a few reasons for this - if you used thinner or thicker needles than recommended in the pattern, a different yarn weight, or if you tried to substitute with a different type of fibre, or yarn brand. Believe it or not, you could follow that pattern's recommendations to a "T "and still be a little off and that's because every knitter knits differently.
How to fix it: If you haven’t started knitting yet, please do the swatch. It’ll save you hours of sobbing later. Check out this very helpful video by Nimble Needles, for tips and tricks on getting gauge. But if you’ve already knitted half a scarf that’s suspiciously turning into a blanket, you’ve got two options: either embrace the unexpected size like Lenny Kravitz, or frog it back and adjust your needle size. Remember, smaller needles make tighter stitches, and bigger needles give you looser ones. (Unfortunately, they don’t make needles that magically fix this without you doing extra work. Yet.)
Prevent it: Repeat after me: Swatches are not optional. Yes, they’re boring, but they’re like seatbelts—you won’t regret using them when things take a wrong turn.
Just remember: there’s no such thing as a perfect knitter. Knitting mistakes happen to everyone, so don’t let them ruin your vibe. Every dropped stitch, twisted loop, or wrong gauge is just another opportunity to practice your “creative problem-solving” (or your ability to laugh at yourself).
What’s the one knitting mistake you find yourself repeating, no matter how hard you try to avoid it? Tell us in the comments below!
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