Knitting help please?

[randomling]

Hello! I have lurked here for aaaages but I am now delurking because I need some help.

I'm knitting a seamless sweater (a la Elizabeth Zimmerman) on circular needles. It's been going swimmingly (stocking, so I'm just knitting and knitting). But this evening when I got home from work, I pulled the project out of my bag in a careless manner and accidentally pulled a bunch of stitches off the needles.

[insert giant sadface here]

So I've managed to get the stitches mostly back on the needles, but I think some of them are twisted and some of them have dropped back a few rows. I know you do something with a crochet needle, but I'm not sure what, and I'm not sure what search terms to use to find good tutorials online. (I keep wanting to type "save my knitting!" into Google, but I'm not sure that will help much.)

My two major questions are:

1. How do I fix the run-down stitches beyond "wave crochet needle"?
2. How do I tell which ones are twisted for sure? I am not great at reading my knitting yet.

Any help in fixing this mess is much appreciated. Thanks!

Comments

[ambersweet]

Try " pick up dropped stitches" for your Google search. I could maybe try and explain how to do it with a crochet hook, but YouTube will probably be more helpful.

When a stitch is sitting the right way on your needle, the right "leg" of the stitch will be to the front. (When you look at a stitch head on, it has a left and right side. Right side is closer to you on the needle.)

I hope this helps! Dropping stitches the first time is terrifying. It gets easier, I promise.

[randomling]

Thank you! I searched as directed and the first Youtube video was super helpful. I am now all fixed and it looks like it should. Yay!

[kaberett]

Fab! I was worriedly wondering whether I needed to offer to come down to visit you ;-)

[indeliblesasha]

In a bit of a rush, otherwise I'd pull you precise links, but try knittinghelp.com - it's my go-to site when I have a question on just about anything.

The forums on Ravelry can be super helpful too if you need more help. :) Good luck!

[randomling]

Thanks - I didn't know about knittinghelp.com, that will be really useful in the future, I'm sure. :D

[gumbie_cat]

Youtube is definitely a good idea, seeing it done really helps.

There are some really useful articles on techknitter, with great illustrations. This one explains how to fix a run in garter stitch, but you can scroll down to the section titled "Here's how to transform a loop into a knit stitch" and just repeat that over and over.

Mysteries of knitting might be helpful with trying to learn to read your knitting and untwist your stitches.

Hope this helps!

[randomling]

Thank you - those links are really handy, they are totally saved for future emergencies. (I'm sure I'll have many.)

[twistedchick]

What they all said.

Also -- I have found that (whenever possible) if you have to pick up a lot of stitches it works better with a smaller size of needle. (So, if I'm using a circular 5 and I drop a lot, I pick them up with a 3 or 4.) And if there are some that have slipped down a few rows, slide a spare needle through them, to keep them from going any further, and that will hold in place as you work with all the others until you get to that point.

[randomling]

That is a really handy tip - I'll bear that in mind for future emergencies!

ETA And thank you!

[itachitachi]

I just have a quick tip about picking up stitches from my experience dropping things all over the place. When you pick up a stitch, there are two ways that it could face, but only one of them is easy to fit your needle through. The other way is a bit harder. So try fitting your needle through with the stitch facing either way, and that should help you figure out which is the correct direction. :)

[kaberett]

Suggestion: maybe start using lifelines? Because they will provide, well, a life-line if this happens again, so that you are not so DDDDD: WHAT IF IT ALL GOES WROOOOOONG. (Am ASLEP grab me in channel and get me to 'splain if'n you don't know what one is!) xx

[randomling]

Hm I have tried lifelines before and I have found them a bit problematic? Partly 'cause of manual dexterity issues, I think (I tend to get them tangled up unhelpfully, eg I accidentally put them through strands of yarn rather than inside the stitch, and I sometimes have trouble not knitting them up into my work).

Also this is a looooong round (208 stitches!).

I might try it but they have been a bit troublesome in the past. :) Thanks for the suggestion, though!

[havocthecat]

I have to admit, I've never tried complicated lace because I'm afraid I'd screw up a lifeline (no one ever describes how to create one or what to use for it).

[untonuggan]

Was going to post a lot of the suggestions about picking up dropped stitches, but it looks like that's covered.

Just out of curiousity, have you discovered point protectors aka knitting needle caps? I prefer Clover brand to the cheaper Susan Bates ones, because the Susan Bates ones will start falling off after a few projects.

My partner now hoards our stash and I have to ask her nicely if I want to have access to some so that I don't lose them.

Point protectors have totes saved my knitting on more than one occasion. In a tote bag, that is.