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:

The lifeline should be done in a contrasting colour yarn or some recommend using dental floss because it is small/thin and slippery.
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.
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.
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.

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