Picking up frogged stitches

[Dyann]

Hi, I am making a sweater and I had to rip back 5 rows. I pulled out the needle, frogged back and picked up the stitches. My question is - are you supposed to pick up the stitches from front to back or back to front to avoid twisted stitches? Thank you.

[suzeeq]

Put the sts on the needle anyway you can, then sort out if they're twisted or not. When you redo the row, always work into the leading leg of the stitch - the leg that's closest to the needle tip - and that will leave them untwisted.

I rip back to the row above the one I want to put on the needle, and take out the last row stitch by stitch as I insert the needle into each of them as they get freed up.

[Dyann]

Put the sts on the needle anyway you can, then sort out if they're twisted or not. When you redo the row, always work into the leading leg of the stitch - the leg that's closest to the needle tip - and that will leave them untwisted.

I rip back to the row above the one I want to put on the needle, and take out the last row stitch by stitch as I insert the needle into each of them as they get freed up.

Thank you! I have them back on the needle and have worked a few rows and it doesn't look right so I am assuming a lot of the stitches are twisted. I can tell if the first row is knitted but it was purled and I couldn't tell.

[suzeeq]

It's trickier on a purl row, which is one reason the first row I redo is a knit row. That's usually the one with the mistakes on it anyway.

[GrumpyGramma]

If a whole row is twisted, it can be quicker and easier to frog again, unfortunately. When I frog I try to remember to check the row I picked up as I knit the next few rows. I'd rather take one stitch off and go down to untwist it sooner rather than later. Yes, I have taken the time and effort to go back a row or two, stitch by stitch, when most of them were twisted.

[salmonmac]

See if these two videos will help. One shows stitch orientation and the other a way to avoid the problem by re-inserting the needle before you frog.

http://www.knittinghelp.com/video/pl...rt-your-needle
http://www.knittinghelp.com/video/pl...ore-unraveling

The other way to avoid the problem is to tink the last row and as you pull the yarn out of each stitch, re-insert the needle.

[Jan in CA]

If you tell which stitch is twisted (they look different) you can just knit into the back of it and it untwists. If I've twisted one and not noticed its twisted till a few rows later I will drop it down and fix it with a crochet hook.