Oh, my goodness . . how easily I can waste an entire day.
This morning after dropping Boots at the vet, I went to Wal-Mart and Kroger and was back home a little after 8:30. I planned to cut and trim a bunch of half square triangles. It’s kinda hard to use the rotary cutter with Boots in the sewing room so with him gone all day, I figured it was a good time to get that done. But, first, I thought I’d spend some time with Speck in the recliner knitting. I’m in the lace section and I do not like having to count stitches. Don’t like it at all. Now I remember why I love knitting plain jane socks!
Row 15 went fine. Row 16 – nothing was matching up. So far, purls kinda lined up with purls. Knits either lined up with knits or yarn overs. Nothing was lining up. I went back and checked everything I thought might be wrong and nothing appeared to be incorrect so I kept going. I got to the end of Row 16 . . all 313 stitches, and it ended in the middle of a repeat, not at the end as it’s supposed to do. I ripped . . stitch by stitch, all of Row 16 and counted the stitches on the needles. Instead of having 313, I had about 286. Somehow, on Row 15, I had totally missed a yarn over at the end of each repeat. Thank goodness I had a lifeline but it was on Row 12 so I had to rip back to Row 12. At 6:45 p.m., I’ve just finished Row 16 and it’s right. Not a single half square triangle got trimmed!
Knitting
I’m using the ChiaoGoo interchangeables. There’s a hole in the connecting ends, that’s really for tightening, but it’s perfect for sticking a thick thread through and using that for a lifeline.
The photo below shows when I threaded a thicker string through the hole at the beginning of the lace section.
Lifeline
Then as I’m knitting, the red string is pulled through the stitches as the new stitches are added to the needle and cable. It’s not easy to see but you can see the red string running through the knitted stitches.
Lifeline
When a mistake happens, or a kitty jumps up and pulls all the stitches off the needle, the lifeline holds the stitches together, like a placeholder and I can go back and thread those stitches onto the needle, say a bad word or two, and then begin knitting again.
Katy S says
This is genius! Wow! I can never rip stitches and get them back on the needles right so I start over completely. I have to remember this. Thanks for sharing the lifeline tip!
lynne quinsland says
i sure could have used a lifeline this past week, and I wish I could have taught my sister how to use one too, but I have NO CLUE as to how to do one. we had no internet connection at her cabin in the woods, and I was supposed to be the expert teacher….. I keep telling myself that I need to do a search on how to do one, but I keep forgetting about it–til the next time I wish I had had one……
terri says
What a great idea!! I’m still trying to finish my first pair of socks, and I’ve ripped it out and started over about a dozen times!! I haven’t worked on them in a while, but come fall, I’ll be knitting again and this winter, I am going to finish a pair of socks if it kills me!!
Teresa in Music City says
Wow – I never heard of using a “lifeline” but i’m going to figure out a way to do it. I’m new to lace work and have had to “backtrack” so many times!!!
Betty Edwards says
Boy great idea! I want some of those needles will have to work that out!
Hugs.
Betty
Linda Steller says
What a great idea! Especially when you’re knitting something with a lot of pattern to it. I’m writing this one down, Judy!