When I was 18/19/20 I was an avid knitter.
I was also a college student. Multi-tasking (that's what it was, even if the term didn't exist) was my life. I could have my knitting in my hands and my textbook in my lap and never miss a stitch or mess up a pattern.Now, (fill in the blank) years later, I can't even seem to carry on a conversation with my husband and knit at the same time.
I recently started knitting a sweater for him as I mentioned in my recent blog. The back and front have a fairly complicated cable, so I put in a lifeline every eight rows.
In this photo you can see the faint white lines which are my lifelines. I used a bit of fingering weight yarn left over from a pair of socks.
First I have to share my favorite needles. Bear with me, it will make sense in a bit. My "go to" needles are my Addi Clicks. I love that I have (almost) every size I need at my fingertips and can purchase separate tips to complete those I might be missing.
But here is the best part - Addi makes a special replacement cord for the set that allows you to just knit along and the lifeline feeds itself into the row. The secret is a self-healing slit at each end of the cord near the join. Slip your yarn in the slit, knit the row, remove the yarn from the slit, and as you knit the next row your lifeline stays in place.
Which brings me to my lesson.
That is my lesson to myself. You see, I saw the value of the lifeline as soon as I started the back of the sweater, and it did save the life of that piece of knitting twice. But then I started the sleeves - two at a time, because who wants to knit the same thing twice in a row. I felt that the pattern repeat was so simple (it's the basket weave you see on the sides of the sweater back) so I surely wouldn't need to go to the bother of taking that extra step. Well, I just told you it was simple. Why did I think it was a bother?So I was blithely knitting along, brain on auto-pilot and totally forgot to do the increases. Had to rip all the way out a start over.
Second time through, I remembered the increases but somehow got my two sleeves turned around and had too many rows in one or not enough rows in the other. Since I didn't know which had the increases correct I had to rip out back as far as the ribbing.
Third time though - slow learner - I'm using the life line!
Smooth going, and if I have to rip now it will only be to the most recent increase row.
