How to Unknit a Stitch

If you’ve spent time reading knitting tutorials, you have probably heard the term frogging. Frogging refers to the phrase “rip it, rip it, rip it,” which sounds like “ribbit ribbit ribbit.” You may need to rip out all of your stitches when something has gone irreparably wrong in your knitting. In that case, you will remove your knitting needles and pull on the yarn to rip out the entire thing. Frogging is often a frustrating and disappointing process to watch all of your hard work unravel. However, frogging is not your only option when you have made a mistake!

It is often easier to undo one knit stitch at a time when you have made a minor mistake. Mistakes like this might come up if you have knitted a stitch when you should have purled it. Or, if you have twisted your knit stitch and need to untwist it, you may need to unknit your stitches one at a time. If you need to decrease or increase your stitches and knitted too far, it is easier to unknit your stitches carefully so you can fix that mistake. The process of unknitting your stitches is called “tinking.” “Tink” is “knit” backward, and you knit backward to undo one stitch at a time. Today we will show you how to tink a right-handed and left-handed knit stitch. Tinking is a beginner-friendly way of fixing your mistakes. For our yarn example today, we are knitting with Yarnalia’s Stormy yarn in the River colorway. Stormy is a 70% superwash 30% nylon fingering weight yarn that is soft and light. The knitted swatch shown here was knitted on size 4 needles in stockinette stitch. The light, smooth yarn glides right off your needles, making unknitting your stitches just as easy!

A knit stitch has two legs: one resting in front of and one resting behind the knitting needle. When you knit, those two legs form the flat V shape that creates the knit stitch. To unknit, pass your needle through the center of the V underneath the active stitch. Move that stitch back onto the opposite needle. The active stitch can sit on your needle with the front leg in front of or behind the needle. The orientation of your stitch will change depending on how you wrap your yarn around your needle. Take note of which direction your stitches face and tink so that your stitches continue to face the same direction. This helps prevent twisted stitches. 

Let’s take a look at the right-handed example. The left leg of the knit stitch sits in front of the needle. To unknit this stitch, pass the left-hand needle through the center of the stitch from back to front. In this image, the stitch has an arrow pointing to the left leg of the stitch we want to tink. Once the left needle is through the center of the stitch, pull the stitch off of the right needle and back onto the left needle. Pull the working yarn out so that the knit stitch unravels. You have unknit one stitch. This can be repeated as many times as needed until you have fixed the issue in your knitting. If your left leg of the stitch sits behind the needle, you will pass the needle through the center from the front to the back, like you are stabbing down with your needle. Then you will pull the stitch off of the right needle and onto the left needle to unknit it. 

Next, let’s take a look at tinking a left-handed knit stitch. In this situation, you will move the stitch from the left needle to the right needle. Find the stitch and identify which leg of the stitch sits on the front of the needle. The stitch we are tinking is identified with an arrow in this image. The right leg of the stitch sits on the front of the needle. To unknit, we will pass our right needle through the back of the stitch bringing the right leg to the front side of the needle. Slide this stitch off of the left needle and onto the right one. Pull out the yarn from the stitch, and you are done! If your right leg of the stitch sits at the back of the needle, you will pass your needle through the front to slide the stitch off. Finish unknitting by sliding the stitch off of the left needle and onto the right needle. Now you know how to tink! It is a great option when you have a small mistake that you can reach quickly to fix. It is possible to tink a few rows of knitting without it being too much trouble, and it’s always nice to avoid frogging your entire project.