Dorret Conway

Last month’s knit knacks featured increasing and decreasing i.e. shaping, where the number of stitches will change during the course of your project. However, a common problem for knitters - not just beginners - is finding that the number of stitches you expect is not the number on the needle. Today I am looking at solving the mystery of “the missing stitches”

A “dropped stitch” is the most commonly cited cause for finding some of your stitches are missing. A dropped stitch is where a stitch has slipped off the needle and so is left behind and doesn’t get worked. The dropped stitch will unravel leaving a hole or a fault called a ladder. This can be a bit of a disaster if the only possible remedy is to unravel (ie undo) all of your knitting back to the dropped stitch, put the stitch back on the needle and then start knitting again: an extremely heartbreaking exercise.

If you find you often drop stitches it may be that you are doing one or more of the following:

• you have the working stitches too close to the tip of the needle
• you are not getting the correct tension on your stitches so they are too loose
• you let go of one of the needles to wrap the yarn
• you hold the right needle like a pen

Therefore, to avoid dropped stitches you need to work on your technique.

There are some other more obvious reasons why your stitch count shows missing stitches. It could be simply that you have miscounted so always check and check again. This is particularly important when casting on because if this is the cause of the missing stitches then your options are probably limited to starting again from scratch, yes that hurts too, so the message is count accurately and count often!! If you are casting on a large number of stitches, you could place a marker say every 20 stitches to make it easier to keep track.

Sometimes missing stitches occur through mistakes during shaping, e.g. missing out one or more of the increases. It’s best not to be doing tricky stuff late at night or when you are distracted. But it is also a very good idea to use a notepad and pen to keep track, marking off each time you have completed the shapings. Knitting patterns will often give you a stitch count at the end of the row (shown as a number in brackets), but if it doesn’t, work it out yourself and do a count after every row. It may seen a bit of a faff when you just want to be getting on with your project, but trust me, you will be kicking yourself if you only discover that mistake many rows later.

So here are my top knitting tips to avoid “losing” stitches:

Dorret’s Top Knitting Tips:

• count often and check your work often.
• use a notepad and pen to keep track of the pattern instructions and shapings
• work on your technique for holding the needles correctly and maintaining correct tension
• use stitch markers when casting on.
• practise, practise, practise!

Knit Knack CD ROM by Dorret Conway is packed with practical tips and advice to improve your knitting. Plus a unique troubleshooting section with video tutorials includes a demonstration of how to pick up dropped stitches.

Glossary of the knitting terms used in this article.

Next month I will be solving the mystery of “too many stitches”.