Lifeline woes!

[afuna]

I love the idea of lifelines, and I've used them before in projects with a thicker weight. This time though, I'm making a very lacy shawl in laceweight yarn, used a lifeline of dental floss, and I'm running into problems.

Yesterday, I found a dropped stitch that had fallen some five rows back. While debugging that, I found another error in the repeat just above my lifeline. So much relief! I ripped back fifteen rows to my lifeline, and then realized that the dental floss wasn't holding the shape of the loops well enough.

It's not an issue with the lifeline having been picked up along with the stitch; the lifeline was sliding back and forth in a straight line before! It's more like the loop of the stitch has been pulled out of the stitch below, though they're still being held together by the lifeline. The lifeline ends up being twisted around one of the strands, and then becomes untwisted if I pick up both stitches and make the knit/purl for that row.

I'm three stitches in, and it feels like it would be a lot more pleasant to frog everything and just restart, but I want to make sure I don't run into the same thing with lifelines in the future.

Is it possible to use a stiffer material for a lifeline? Say an interchangeable circular cord, or maybe some wire?

Comments

[indeliblesasha]

I use scrap yarn of the same weight I'm knitting, in an obviously different color. I run only through purl rows, because then, for me, I know exactly what the stitch should look like as I take it off the line. :) Good luck!

[afuna]

Thank you!

And it just struck me that I could have used crochet thread, which is what I usually use, even if the thread would be thicker than the yarn for this particular project.

[cme]

I use crochet thread as a lace lifeline all the time.

But I also wanted to suggest that lace is really malleable, so if this happens, you can tie one end of your lifeline to something, hold the other end so the lifeline is taught, and tug gently on your knitting to reshape the stitches that your lifeline goes through. This will pull the loops you made with your needle back into a place where they can be grabbed by your needle.

[afuna]

Oooh I bet I could have salvaged my previous lace panel that way. Too late now, but if I'm ever in that situation again, that's the first thing I'm going to try >_>