How to Pick Up a Slipped Stitch

If you slip a stitch in crochet, it is necessary to pick it back up.

When you crochet, you may drop -- or slip -- a stitch. A slipped stitch can ruin the look of the pattern you are making, especially if you are crocheting a pattern stitch. If you are crocheting an item such as an afghan, the slipped stitch may look like an obvious error. When this happens, you need to find the slipped stitch so you can correct the error. Because you are working with one tool and one strand of yarn, a slipped stitch in crochet is not as much an issue as it would be in knitting.

Things You'll Need

• Worsted weight yarn
• Size G/6 crochet hook
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Crochet a foundation of 30 chain stitches.

2. Crochet two chain stitches for the first single crochet (SC) stitch of row one. Crochet one SC into each chain stitch to the end of the foundation chain, and then crochet two chain stitches for row two. Turn the work.

3. Continue crocheting SC stitches for row three. Crochet two chain stitches and turn the work.

4. Crochet 10 SC stitches for row four. Begin the eleventh stitch normally, and then drop a loop. Continue to crochet as if you had not dropped the loop.

5. Pull the yarn out of the crocheted stitches to the point where you dropped the loop. Pull one additional stitch out, and then resume crocheting SC stitches from this point. Cut the yarn using the scissors.

Tips & Warnings

• Crochet additional practice swatches where you drop stitching loops.

• Practice dropping and picking up loops on other crochet stitches -- half-double crochet, double crochet and triple crochet stitches.

• A dropped stitch in crochet does not unravel previous rows. If you drop a stitch in knitting, this can require you to pull out several rows of knitting to pick up all the dropped stitches.

References

• "Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker"; Debbie Stoller; 2006