How to Use a Lifeline in Knitting

If you’ve been knitting for a while (or a LONG while, like I have) you may understandably feel pretty confident in your skills. If you are like me, this might cause you to be a little cocky when it comes to trying new things, sure that not only will you get it on the first try, but it will also be easy for you.

Sometimes this will work out fine, and sometimes karma will come back to get you.

You can probably guess what kind of project I’m talking about right now.

I offered to knit a special project for someone, using a stitch pattern I probably never would have chosen, and while it probably shouldn’t have been as hard as it was, I just kept messing it up. And because it was a pattern full of yarn overs and slipped stitches, when I messed up I’d have to rip all the way back because every time I tried to pick up stitches I just messed it up more, or started knitting again on the wrong row and messed up the stitch pattern.

I was humbled.

Also, I was reminded of the knitter’s best friend in situations like this: the lifeline.

A lifeline is just a piece of yarn or thread that you run through your stitches, just below the needle, on a row you know you’ve worked correctly. If or when you make a mistake in a future row, you can easily rip back to that row that you know is correct without any fear of dropping stitches or losing yarn overs or other fancy stitches.

This is a great thing to do when you are learning a new to you technique like cables, lace or brioche. (The pattern I was struggling with was a brioche variation.) It gives you a little insurance that your mistakes won’t be fatal, and it helps you keep track of your progress, which can be super motivating when learning new things.

Check out how to use a lifeline over at Our Daily Craft. I’d love to hear your stories about using a lifeline, especially if you have a “should have used a lifeline” story, too!

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use.

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make.

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!).

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn.

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart.

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern.

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.

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