End stitch came undone

Hi!

I’m working on 2 holiday gifts, and somehow I managed to drop the end stitch on both! It seems like it should be so easy to fix, but I keep ending up with a giant loose loop no matter what I do.

I’m not sure if they both require the same fix… if not, can anyone explain how to fix both?

Thanks!
Shawna

Hello
If you turn your work so that all the fabric stitches are on your right needle and the dropped edge stitch is put back into the empty left needle, you will then rework the last stitch of the previous row.
Work the single stitch, turn and work the next row.

Things that effect the size of the first stitch can be
The twist in the edge stitch. When on your left needle the front leg of the stitch should be to the right and the back leg should be to the left. Dropping an edge stitch can untwist it so check this as you remount it onto the needle.
The additional yarn in your stitch likely belongs to the edge stitch in the row below. Look right at the base of your edge stitch, see it is quite tight? Compare that stitch base and route of travel of the yarn with your other edge stitches which all have even tension and nice and relaxed. The relaxed even tension on the other stitches is lovely. If you insert a tapestry needle or a cable needle or smaller knitting needle carefully into the tight yarn strand below the stitch you can gentley draw some of he excess yarn back down into the stitch below which has become tight and even up the size of the dropped stitch. It is not vital to correct the size of the stitch at this point, but try not to pull it even tighter than it is. Sometimes people pull on an edge to try to make it smaller but it has the opposite result.

I would just loosen that tight stitch a little, then knit the stitch not worrying much about the size, then continue to work rows as before to get your needles away from this section. Then resize the edge stitch a little if needed.

Excess yarn can be drawn both down into the tightened stitch below and also across the row the dropped stitch is on. Redistributing the excess yarn right across the row makes each stitch a tiny bit bigger but is not noticable overall.

Edge stitches are a little more vulnerable than the other stitches, just because of the nature of knitting, I always look after them like they can get bruised!

I hope this helps.

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Dropped edge stitches are tricky to read because the end loop actually forms two stitches - the last one of the penultimate row and the first one of the next row.
This tutorial might be helpful? It’s for garter stitch but the same principle applies to other stock patterns.

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You saved me! Perfect instructions on what to do, and I saw exactly what you were referring to with the tightness. I never would have noticed that as being the issue.

Thank you and happy holidays!
:smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Thank you! I’ll check it out!

You’re very welcome. Glad to be able to help.
Happy holidays to you too.

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