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[music]
i get this question a lot from people.
they want to work lifelines, because they're a way to keep your stitches safe and easy
to retrieve if you need to rip back from making a mistake.
but it's really only easy to do a proactive lifeline, i'm going to demonstrate all of
this.
instead of a reactive lifeline.
and it even gets more complicated if you're doing a reactive lifeline in something like
ribbing.
where it's not just plain knit stitch Vs where you're going to pick up the stitches.
so, i got an email from lisa in boston MA, and she had an idea for how to make it easy
to make a reactive lifeline in knitting.
but first, i want to show you how much easier a proactive lifeline is.
let's go ahead and take a look.
i have a little bit of ribbing here, it's still on the needle.
and this is what a proactive lifeline looks like.
you take some thin yarn, like some smooth sock yarn.
thread it on to the needle.
and then put that through every stitch on the needle, like this.
this is what you do when you're working something, and you're worried you might make a mistake.
you run that through every stitch on the needle, and then you just leave it there, and continue
working.
then if you make a mistake, you can rip back, and all of those stitches are held safely
on the needle.
but you have to think ahead to do this. [laughs]
and people don't like to imagine they might make a mistake!
i have some regular students who put lifelines in every couple of inches in their work, because
it's quick to do, and it's an easy way to rip back and retrieve your stitches.
but that was an example of everything going perfectly well.
we're going to address something that's a little more difficult.
we're going to say that you've made a mistake in ribbing, and you don't have a lifeline.
so you need to put in a reactive lifeline.
and it's not as easy to work, because you have knit stitches and purl stitches, and
it's hard to tell where to pick up in the purl stitches.
so this was lisa's idea.
and it's such a good idea.
thank you, lisa, for the recommendation.
i am going to put this red yarn through all of the knit stitches that i see in one row,
to rip back.
and what i'm going to do is i'm going to put my needle under the right leg of each V.
so this first one's right at the edge there.
i want to make sure that i stay in the same column.
just going under the right leg of each V all the way across.
okay, so that took care of half of the stitches.
right, i've got this red yarn running through all of the stitches, all of the knit stitches
on the work.
now all i have to do is flip it!
and i can pick up what was the purl stitches on this side, what were the purl stitches
on this side, are now knit stitches on this side.
i'm going to use a different color of sock yarn.
and do the same thing over here.
going under the right leg of the V.
okay.
now i have all the stitches on one side - all the knit stitches on this side, and the knit
stitches on this side.
which make all of the stitches.
i can take this out and rip back.
and, ta da!
there are all my stitches.
and i can put them back on the needle, by making sure they're mounted with the right
leg in front.
which usually means coming at them from the back to the front like this.
and i jump over and pick two up from the red, jump over and pick two up from the green.
and it works like that because this is two by two rib.
okay! see how easy that was?
then i can either pull these two lifelines out, or leave them in and continue knitting,
just in case i need to get back to them again.
and that's it.
an advanced lifelines technique.
many thanks to lisa from boston for the idea.
[whooshing sounds]
[music]