How to: fix twisted stitches

If you’re knitting to a lacy pattern or have had to unpick your work in some way, it’s not difficult to end up with a stitch that is on the needle the wrong way round, and is different to deliberately making a twisted stitch. Luckily, it’s an easy fix and best done if you can, to avoid spoiling the pattern.

If you look at the loops on the needle for a knit row, the front leg of the stitch (that you can see) should be closer to the tip than the back leg. With an accidentally twisted stitch, the legs will be the other way round. To turn the stitch back the right way, pick up the stitch from the left-hand needle before it is worked by inserting the right-hand needle from back to front, then place it back onto the first needle. This simple principle of untwisting a stitch works for purl stitches also, just be aware that if you think you have a twisted stitch on a row of knit and purl stitches, the position of the front and back legs of the stitches will vary, depending on the pattern.