How do you take down a row of knitting?

There are two main ways to undo a row of knitting: tinking and frogging.

The term "tink" is "knit" spelled backwards. In this technique, each stitch is undone one stitch at a time. Insert the tip of the left needle front-to-back into the center of the stitch just below the first stitch on the right needle. Drop the first stitch on the right needle and gently tug the working yarn so the loop of the unwanted stitch is pulled out. Repeat with each individual stitch to the point where things first went wrong.

The second technique, "frogging," is generally used when more than one row of knitting must be ripped out. It's called "frogging," because "rip-it, rip-it" is the sound a frog makes. It is faster than tinking which is both good and bad. It doesn't take long to frog but it is easy to go too far. Simply drop all the stitches off the needle and pull the working yarn until all the offending rows are gone. Then re-thread the needle through the remaining live stitches.

A little pre-planning can make frogging safer. Find the row you wish to rip back to and carefully insert the left needle into the stitch of the last row you wish to keep. Always insert the needle starting with the left most stitch and always insert it from the front to the back. This will orient the stitches on the needle normally so that none are accidentally twisted when knitting is resumed.

Another technique for controlled frogging involves inserting a "safety line." When you have completed a row that is correct, thread a piece of scrap thread through each stitch without removing the stitches from the needle. Use a very smooth thread, such as mercerized crochet cotton in a contrasting color.