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Knitting Friday - on lifelines and things
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| #1 finished hem & mascot |
Picture #1 is the finished top from last week with the added *K1 back loop, P1* ribbing. The bottom of the sweater no longer rolls. I wish I had had the patience to work more than 3" of ribbing but it got so boring.
You can see that I decided to add a mascot to my Knitting Friday. Well originally, I thought he could model my knitting but the size is wrong. I'm keeping him though because I'm a sucker for soft, stuffed animals and the kids are way past the stuffed animal phase to care.
You can slightly see on the right in picture #1 another top. Here's the pattern I used, Arbor:
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| #2 Jackson Pollack sweater |
Except, I only used the bodice pattern, a *K3, P2* cable stitch because I didn't think my variegated yarn would work for the lace top pattern, plus this yarn is acyclic so there could be no blocking.
I call the top on the left in picture #2 my Jackson Pollack top because the pooling is so wacky, just like his paintings. The only difference being, he plans his randomness, I just went from working with 160 stitches in the yoke to 140 stitches in the body (same size needles) to get this crazy pooling. And yes, in case you're wondering, the same person is going to wear both tops (me) because the stretch is unbelievable in the left top. And it doesn't stretch so much that you would say: Boy, she squeezed herself into that. I was afraid that would happen so I decided you use 140 stitches for the body. (I usually do 100 - 110 stitches for my typical lace body in DK weight.)
Which brings me to a mini-lesson for today because I learned something new and perhaps this will be new to you also: lifelines.
Now, I know what lifelines are and you can see one in that white horizontal thread running through the left top in picture #2. (There are really 2 lifelines in that picture).
Lifelines are randomly placed threads through various rows in your garment. They are there because, if you make a mistake, you can drop the needles and tink back to those lifeline rows where all your stitches are secure ready for you to pick them up and repair your mistake. Lifelines are very important in lace work because, without them, if you miss a stitch you are seldom able to repair the pattern without unraveling rows and then more rows.......sometimes right back to the beginning. Lifelines also work if you want to try on your garment because you just add a lifeline, remove your needles, try on the garment and then pick up the secured lifeline row and knit away. (Picking up this row in a much smaller needle - I used US 3 - makes everything so much easier.)
I always made lifelines by working a row and then threading a darning needle with heavy thread and weaving it through every stitch on that row. A good practice but very tedious.
I would never have made lifelines on this cable top since, unless you goofed way back past the cable row, it was an easy knit for fixing mistakes. However, I knew I would have to try this top on a few times so lifelines were necessary.
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| # 3 lifelines |
In picture #3, the top lifeline was for my first try-on to see if this baby was knitting too big or too small. It wasn't, it was knitting just right. The second lifeline is where I decided to finish the top in the same pattern cable ribbing but go from US 10.5 to US 8 to give a tighter hem. This lifeline was necessary in case this idea was a bust and I had to tink back. Where my fingers are will be the third lifeline to try on the top to see if I have to knit more (I did: 2".)
You may be thinking: So she likes lifelines. What's with the mini lesson?
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| # 4 using the hole |
This is the mini-lesson: using the needle hole.
Remember when you used to daydream in school? Well, I daydream out of school because as many times as I heard it, using the hole found in some needles (see picture #4) for lifelines was just a blur of words to me, until yesterday. In picture #4, you see my Knit Picks interchangeable needle in US 10.5 and the arrow points to the hole found just below where the needle screws into the cable.
You take a long strand of sturdy, but thin, cotton thread (long enough to amply go around your body and then some) and thread it into this hole. See picture #5. (I'm using separate needle here for an illustration; obviously you would have your garment stitches attached to this needle.)
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| # 5 threading the hole |
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| #6 the lifeline moving along |
Then you just knit along as you regularly would pulling the lifeline through the stitches and making sure one end of the lifeline doesn't slip out of the hole (that's why you cut a very big piece of thread to start.)
In picture #6, the arrow points to the needle hole and I've pulled up a few loops of the white thread on the right to show that it's being worked into the row of the stitches. Once
you finish the row, pull the needle tip forward so the stitches work
their way onto the cable section and the lifeline goes through all the
stitches. Be sure to tie the ends of the lifeline together so none of
your stitches work free of it. After that you can remove your needles and try on your garment.
Here's a good lifeline refresher video which will make anything unclear, clear:
As with everything in life, things get done in relation to the bother they cause. Lifelines were always a bother for me and therefore always understood in importance but seldom used. They're no longer a bother and what really makes this nice for me is that there are a lot of lace projects I would like to tackle and now I can.
I know that various brands of interchangeable needles have lifeline holes: Knit Picks, Chia Goo (still only pre-order), Addi Lace, Denise. It looks like only the interchangeable KPs have the hole so this might also be true with the other brands of fixed circulars. If you have an LYS (local yarn store) near you, you could go there and ask about needle lifeline holes or check the big box stores (Michael's, AC Moore, etc.) and see if any of their needles have the lifeline hole.
That's it for today. Right now, with this top project ending, I'm thinking about a winter vest. More next week. Happy knitting.
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