Help, it went wrong

Everyone who knits drops stitches. Everyone gets holes where there shouldn't be any. Here are the five things that go wrong most often — and what to do about them.

🦔 Pigg says: None of this means you're bad at knitting. It just means you're knitting.

The stitch fell off the needle

The most common one of all. And there's no rush — the stitch will sit there and wait for you.

Pick it back up carefully with the needle. Make sure it faces the same way as the others, or it'll be twisted.

If it has run down several rows, ask a grown-up for help. With a crochet hook it takes half a minute.

I've made a video about exactly this:

It got so tight I can't get the needle in

That means you're holding the yarn too hard. Almost everyone does at the start, especially when you're concentrating.

Loosen your hand a little. Try to let the yarn slide instead of pulling on it.

If that doesn't help, use thicker needles for a while. That's not cheating.

I lost count

Count again, in fives. It's quicker than counting one by one, and it's easier to spot where you went wrong.

If you have a stitch marker, put one in every ten stitches. Then you never have to count the whole lot again.

There's a hole

Usually the yarn has gone over the needle instead of under. That gives you an extra stitch, and a small hole.

Two options: keep knitting and sew the hole up with a darning needle when you're done — or rip back to the hole and knit that bit again.

On a bookmark or a scarf nobody can tell the difference. Pick whichever is more fun.

I can't be bothered any more

Put it down.

Don't rip it out, don't throw it away. Put the knitting in a bag and do something else. Come back tomorrow, or next week.

Knitting doesn't get any worse for lying around. And almost everyone who knits has put something down once and picked it up again later.

🦔 Pigg says: The only way to get good is to make mistakes enough times.

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