Working on a scarf and just messed up one row. I tried ripping back stitch by stitch and am pretty sure I messed that up too. So now I just want to rip back a couple rows to get a fresh start but have no idea how. I’m very inexperienced. This is my very first knitting project ever and I’ve been teaching myself as I go. I’m pretty proud of it so far though and would love to fix it. Any help please? Thank you!
How to rip out a few rows of the fisherman's rib?
Welcome!
There’s not an easy way to do this unfortunately. I’ve ripped out one stitch at a time but it may take doing this for 2 rows to get it straight. Since every other stitch is a double stitch, I put the double stitch back on the needle and fix that when I start re-knitting.
I know it doesn’t help much now but the best way to avoid the problem is to use multiple lifelines.
This is more a how-to on the stitch itself but still has helpful information:
As a beginner teaching myself, I really do not understand the stitching “lingo” what exactly is a double stitch? How would I go about putting that back on my needle when trying to rip out? I’m very visual and watched a lot of videos to look at different angles to understand how to do this. However, now that I’m looking back, I’m confused and am not sure how to stitch back through those dropped stitches I have from knitting one below every other one.
Sorry for the confusion. When you knit into the stitch below, you have knit through 2 loops so that’s a kind of double stitch. So if you work backwards, pulling out the stitch, you should see 2 loops. You can figure out which is the correct stitch to get onto the needle for that row or you can put both loops onto the needle and figure out which is correct later. It’s not easy, that’s for sure.
I do brioche stitch which gives a similar look and there’s no joy there either when you need to take out a row.
ETA: See if this video of the “double stitch” helps.
This video also shows the stitch
Thank you very much! You saved my scarf! The second video was right on, it was easier for me to just rip out a few rows and start over.
Thank you so much for this excellent video ! Your explanations are very clear and make this recovery process very easy (where everybody else states that’s it’s just about impossible!).
I was able to save my scarf instead of redoing it all.
Welcome to the forum!
I’m glad this video continues to help. Lifelines are a comfort in case there’s a mistake but knowing you can recover sts regardless gives confidence. Enjoy finishing and wearing your scarf!