This clue took me longer because I got sick! Ug! I think I have my daughter to thank for it, since she returned to school a little more than a week ago, and we all know schools are basically Petri dishes of germs.
Off to clue 5! Hopefully I can zip through it!
You can see, I’m adding lifelines about every 17 rows. That’s about half of a clues worth of work! I don’t know if you can tell or not, but I’m transitioning to the third ball of yarn at the end of clue three. 🙂
The Stash and Dash pattern by Annie is free for a limited time (October 1, 2015, I believe!). They also sellers finishing kits (one in nickel, and one in antique brass) for $14.95. They include everything you need, other than the fabrics (which everyone wants to pick their own anyway!), and also you get to choose your zipper color from 48 different colors to coordinate with your fabric choices.
Notice the brown line? That’s a lifeline! See? I do use them! 🙂
I made the above stitch markers to help me keep track of individual stitches as I knit. I find them really helpful, especially in patterns when the stitches are really small. They are real helpful when designing your own pattern!
They aren’t hard to make, nor are they terribly expensive. All you need are shrinking plastic, permanent markers in several colors, a single hole punch, scissors, Locking stitch markers, and a shape to trace that is about two inches by two inches (I used a salt shaker which has an octagon for the bottom).
Most knitters I know have lots and lots of needles, and I’m one of them! And when you get as many as I have it is so hard to keep track of them all. Â Currently, I have most of them thrown in a craft storage tub, paired together in the bags they came in. Â That makes it hard for me to find the size I need, when I need it.
So, yesterday, I talked about what a lifeline was and why it was important. I failed to mention how to insert a lifeline.
You’re thinking there is only one way to put in a lifeline, right? Thread a needle with some contrasting color yarn (I use lace weight yarn! You can use dental floss, embroidery thread, etc, what ever you have at hand!) and carefully weave it into all the live stitches (missing ALL of your stitch markers, don’t forget!). You can certainly do it that way, the hard way, but some interchangeable needle companies have come up with cheats.
A lifeline is a scrap piece of thread or yarn, threaded through your work, as a holding point. Â It is used to protect your work from dropped stitches, and if you have to frog your work back if you have an error.
Here is a youtube video by Knitpicks.com that goes through exactly what it is and why a lifeline is important:
Here is part of side one. It is two repeats of the ten. I did the close up shot so you can see the details better. The length of the entire clue is about 30 inches. Now onto clue two!