Skip to main content

A Knitting Lifeline

A lifeline can be a life saver and it just might be the technique I need to use to help the False Creek Cowl and I make amends.  According to Heart Strings Fiber Arts:  A lifeline in knitting is a temporary thread inserted through a row of stitches. The knitting lifeline serves as a checkpoint if we have a calamity and need to rip out and re-do several rows. 

See the white lifeline.  This is a relatively complicated lace and a very appropriate use for the lifeline 

This technique is most often used when knitting lace to help the knitter avoid having to frog an entire project because it is so difficult to pick up yarn over and knit-2-together stitches.  (Like I said the lace in False Creek Cowl is simple, but perhaps not simple enough for me.  Just using a lifeline could have saved me all that wasted effort.)

A lifeline is pretty easy to use.  See this video for the specifics of the technique.  The key ideas to remember:
  1. The lifeline should be done in a contrasting colour yarn or some recommend using dental floss because it is small/thin and slippery.
  2. Don't mistakenly catch any of the live stitches in the lifeline.  The lifeline should be easy to pull out with the live stitches left right on the needle.
  3. Keep in mind if you are using stitch markers to not slip them through the lifeline.  (See the picture below.)  If you do, the stitch marker can't be moved because it is being held in place by the lifeline.
  4. Move the lifeline up as you continue to knit.  As you create more error free work you want to celebrate that success by moving the lifeline.  This will cut back on how far you have to tnik in order to eliminate your error.
  
See how the lifeline goes underneath the stitch marker.  If the lifeline went through the center of the marker, the marker couldn't be moved when the next row is knit; it would be held in place by the lifeline along with all the other stitches.  
So there it is a very simple solution to my False Creek Cowl problem.  Perhaps I will pick it up before Xmas, perhaps.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time.  One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock.  So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep.  Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot.  And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms...
4 comments
Read more

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while.  But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf .  I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you?  It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank.  (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls  If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo.  Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left.  Easy to find, right! ...
24 comments
Read more

Knitting-Related Guinness World Records

I had to share some of the Guinness World Records connected with knitting.  It is amazing to me the type of skill, stamina and unique characteristics these record holders have in common. How about trying to knit with these SPNs?? Ingrid Wagner and her large needles and knitted swatch The largest knitting needles measured 3.5 m (11 ft 5.8 in) long and had a diameter of 8 cm (3.15 in). Ingrid Wagner, a rug and art creation artist, from the UK used the needles to knit a tension square of ten stitches by ten rows at the Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, on March, 10 2008.  (And I complained about getting certain SPNs stuck in my clothes.)  See how this swatch was done with merely 5 people managing the needles.  And what about the yarn?  It is truly ex-bulky.  It looks like they're knitting in a warehouse, but with a wingspan of almost 24 feet or 7 m, you'd need all that space.  Or h...
5 comments
Read more