Argus Knitalong: Week 8

[laughingrat]

Hey, the two month mark! Wow, yay! Originally there was some discussion of maybe going to biweekly posts after this point; what do you think? People not in the KAL, do these posts make you wanna gouge your eyes out? KAL peeps, whether wrapping up or maybe just getting started, are these potentially-useful spaces for you?

As always, please share your comments, questions, complaints, squees, progress pics, etc.!

Comments

[laughingrat]

Hurrah! Have you put in a lifeline at all before? That might help you preserve your progress if you have to rip out again. Chart B...damn, I don't have my pattern in front of me, but that's the one we do three times, right? No, that's A...well, point is, maybe after your next purl row you can pop in a lifeline. :-D Just make sure you don't feed it through your stitch markers! I did that once (and had the kind of markers that are just little closed loops) and OMG, the annoyance when I realized my mistake...

[uninvitedcat]

I'd never even heard of a lifeline until about two weeks ago! It's probably a very good idea, although (touch wood) I've nearly finished B now... Actually, no. It's a very good idea and I should start using them immediately.

At least my stitch markers are just spare wool tied around the needles, so I don't have to worry too much about knitting them into the piece!

(Row 17!!!)

[willidan]

Okay. Yeah. What is a lifeline? I can guess a bit from the title, but how do I work it in and take it out?

[laughingrat]

They can be anything, really, but it helps if it's a smooth yarn so you can thread it and pull it out as necessary. You can even use dental floss if you're working with pretty fine yarns, or some people use pearl cotton embroidery thread. When you come to the end of a row, take a length of whatever floss or yarn you're using as your lifeline--make sure it's plenty long, it needs to have enough room to fit your whole project row on there even stretched out--and thread it on a darning needle and just run it through every loop of the row. Just straight through, no weaving in and out or anything.

I mentioned the stitch markers before--make sure you don't do like I did the first time I ran a lifeline! I ran it through my stitch markers and of course that meant they were embedded in that row. Whoops. So out came the lifeline. Annoying! If you have those little stitch markers that open and shut, though, it wouldn't be a huge problem.

Anyway, if you wind up having a problem and ripping back, the lifeline keeps you from losing progress unnecessarily or having to worry about accidentally dropping stitches when you rip back. I really don't use them as often as I should.

EDIT: Here's a lifeline tutorial from Heartstrings Fiber Arts.

[willidan]

Excellent! Thank you. That actually will be a lifeline. For me and everyone in my life. I tend to get cranky when I have to rip out knitting.