Correct dropped stitches in Fisherman's Rib

Help! I seem to have dropped part of a stitch while working in Fisherman’s Rib pattern. when I tried to go back, i had trouble reinserting my needles. short of ripping the whole thing, there has to be an easy way to fix this!

Go to this part of the site and scroll down to “fixing mistakes”, there are a couple of helpful videos there. :slight_smile:

Fisherman’s rib is trickier though… Are doing the variation where you knit or k1,p1 on one row? If you are, rip back to the row before that one, then pull out each stitch one by one as you put them back on the needle.

I tried doing a fishermans rib once, actually made several attempts but could never get it to work. I discovered that if I made a mistake it was impossible for me to fix. When I asked my good friend who used to own the LYS we had (past tense) here if she had any secrets she said, “Don’t make any mistakes.” :wink: I actually thought I could do that at first, but found out I couldn’t. So had to give up.

I had knit ones in the row below on every row. Someone once suggested to someone here on the forum to try using a lifeline, and I thought maybe I’d get back to that little baby sweater and try that. Maybe??

I’m having the same trouble. Last night I worked for 4 hours to pick up 2 stitches. I also took the project to my local yarn store where the owner worked for an hour and never did figure out how to correct a mistake. I did manage to discover that when you go back to pick up a stitch, instead of having one stitch on the needle that you pull thru the “ladder”, you need to have 2 stitches on the needle ( so that you end up with 2 strands of yarn forming the purl on the back side of the knit stitch.) By some miracle I managed to fix the mistake - or at least it’s not noticeable. I also have discovered that if you need to rip out your work, you have to do it one stitch at a time and re-create the knit stitch by “picking up” the knit stitch that is above the one that has been knit into. I knit a sample swatch in the pattern and practiced taking it out, dropping a stitch, etc so I could analyze how it works. Basically I just do a lot of praying that I don’t make a mistake!

My best way of fixing dropped stitches in fiisherman’s rib that was created by pearl 1, knit 1 below on all rows is this:

secure your dropped loop!! pull the knitting needles apart to
see your “ladder of threads”. examine them. every dropped stitch
creates two threads on the ladder, a B thread and an A thread above it.
The only exception is if your top stitch was a regular pearl, then there will be an odd number of loose threads in your ladder and the top thread will be crocheted like a regular purl. The “A” threads will be looser and may retain an upward curve because it was forming an upward loop. Every B thread was also wrapped around the bottom of a loop but goes off to the side to form loops in the two stitches to the side… but does not form a loop in this stitch.

Turn your knitting around so you are looking at the the purled side of the dropped stitch (the raised side):

------A------
------B------
------A------
------B------
^ --> Dropped Stitch

This shows a dropped stitch that has unraveled only twice. For each unraveled loop TWO threads are freed into your ladder.
Notice the A threads tend to be longer - They may even retain the shape of a downward facing loop looking like a frown.

  1. slide your crochet hook through the dropped loop

  2. slide your crochet UNDER the next thread up the ladder, the B thread

  3. grab the A (upper) thread with the crochet hook and pull it through your old loop to form a new loop. Pull the new loop towards you and up Notice that your new loop has two threads wrapped around its bottom, the B thread and the old loop thread.

  4. Repeat with new loop until you’re at the top. If the dropped stitch was last purled you should have an odd number of threads in your ladder and the last time you need only pull one thread through your loop.

1 Like

Thank you! You’ve saved me from ripping!

See the section too under Tips at the top of this page on using a lifeline. It (plus the advice above) may help limit the damage if this happens again.

rcherm - THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

I am working on a sweater that I knitted a few years ago that had tons of dropped stitches that I didn’t know how to fix. I ended up frogging the whole sweater and started over. I’m a more experienced knitter now, but still keep dropping the stupid stitches.

My solution is to insert a lifeline after every 2 rows of fisherman’s rib. After knitting 2 rows, I pull the lifeline and check carefully for dropped stitches. It’s fairly easy to fix them if there are only 2 rows. It’s tedious - but way better than frogging the entire thing.

Hope this helps somebody who comes across this again.

FYI - for my lifeline, I use standard embroidery floss, usually only 2-3 strands at a time. It pulls out very easily.

Barbara

1 Like