I’m a big fan of using lifelines when knitting lace, but there are times when you need to rip back regular knitting and you might have a bit of paranoia related to having a stitch (or a bunch) drop past where you want to stop ripping.
If you’re worried about that, first you should know that if you’re knitting with wool it probably won’t be a problem. Second you should know that you can make a spare needle into a sort of lifeline after the fact by running it through the legs of the stitches on whatever row you’d like to rip back to so that you can easily hold the stitches without having any of them wander farther than you’d like.
Check out exactly how to do this over on the WEBS blog.
[Photo via WEBS.]
If you need to rip back your knitting due to a mistake, it can be difficult to properly grab the live stitches and place them back on your needle.
One way to ensure that the stitches don’t unravel is to pick them up before ripping back.
For stockinette stitch, locate the row below the one you want to begin re-knitting on.
Insert your needle under the first strand of yarn in the V-shape of the first stitch on the right side, continuing down the row and picking up the first strand of yarn in each V while skipping the second leg.
In garter stitch, the same process applies, but you will be inserting your needle into the first leg of the V in the bumps of the garter stitch.
Once you have your needle inserted all the way down the row, you can pull the working yarn to rip back the rows above the needle and the stitches will be ready to use on your needle.
Remember to use a smaller needle for picking up the stitches and switch back to the original size when you start knitting again.
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