* * *
I took Swallowtail with only a couple of rows to knit of the thirteenth repeat of the budding lace pattern. After they were finished, I was ready to go on to the lily of the valley chart--but, remembering the disaster that was my last attempt at "purl-5-together while knitting a mirror-image lace border" and the subsequent total frogging, I decided to put in a lifeline.
I pulled out a needle and some red sewing thread, and while having excellent conversations about everything from the glory that is Alice Starmore to the glory that is Barack Obama, I calmly slipped stitches from the knitting needle to my sewing needle and suspended the stitches on the thread.
* * *
What?! WHY am I taking the stitches off the needle?! I've never done a lifeline before but I know this is absolutely ridiculous. I painstakingly pick up the quarter row of stitches I had slipped off. Aargh!
* * *
Things start getting hot and fuzzy and shaky. I feel like I'm going to faint. I ask David to get me some cold water, no--walk me to the bathroom--no, just let me lie down on the floor for a minute....
* * *
It was not really this new shawl crisis that led to my faintness. I'm pretty sure it was an occasional thing that hasn't happened in a while related to a long-standing medical issue. But gosh, to the knitting group it must not have looked that way! I am fine now--a little tired and a little headachey but just fine.
* * *
Martha, my knitting pal that drove us to Rhinebeck and who is also struggling with Swallowtail, sent me a link this morning about a terrific way to put in a lifeline. The idea of using my KnitPicks needles on this lace after the cord pulled out last time left me a little nervous--but after tugging at the new cord to check its fastness, I decided to risk it. I did a slight variation of Fleegle's instructions.
After tying my thread to the little hole in the end of the KnitPicks needle, I just knit the next row, the stockinette row that begins the Lily of the Valley section:
What joy these needles are compared to the ones I was knitting with before. Why didn't I switch earlier?! When I reached the end, the sewing thread was nicely arranged through all the new stitches.
Magic!
3 comments:
I always make more of a mess than I fix when I do lifelines -- thank you for the helpful hint! syl
That lifeline tip is simply brilliant. I will remember it always and totally forget where it came from. :(
Hope you are feeling better.
I have to admit that when I saw the picture of your son slowly load onto my screen I thought "Oh my God! That poor boy, his mother knit him some sort of Pilgrim outfit for a Thanksgiving play or something!"
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