Lifelines

This has been an incredibly hectic week.  We had the selection meeting for the Winter issue of Cast On.  The stitch pattern focus is on brioche and the fashion framework is for cowls.  The issue will be accessory heavy as it is the holiday issue...lots of ideas for gifts.  I hauled up all of the yarn I have put into center-pull balls and the yarn for the goody bags.  This photo is just the tip of the iceberg.  My car was stuffed.  The sponsors for the yarn tasting are providing AT LEAST 20 skeins which will be distributed among the bags but Anzula and Baah sent 80, one for each participant.  I envision sort of a Halloween Candy Exchange after the tasting.

I indicated in a post on Ravelry that I would provide a complete list of the sponsors but that would take too much time.  Instead I took two photographs of the swatches I have worked up and tagged.  These are the yarns that are finished....I still have four yarns from Blue Moon, three from LB Collection, Swan Island, Imperial Yarn, Brown Sheep, Araucania, and Elemental Affects to "process".  There are still a few companies who want to be sponsors but haven't sent the yarn yet.  There are three weights:  lace/sock, DK and worsted.  As of this minute there are 32 yarns.





On Tuesday we had the photo shoot for the Fall issue at an alpaca farm.  It was a lovely location.  After a late start it went quite well.  We had a baby and his big brother model the argyle vests I did a million years ago.  They were absolutely adorable.  I changed what I plan to do for winter so we can use them again.

STUDENT NEWS
It seemed like I reviewed a ton of lessons this week but that is probably because I was out of town.  Keep up the good work!


TIP OF THE WEEK
This is a companion piece to last week's topic.  Anyone who has had to rip out work knows what a pain it can be but it is particularly difficult with lace.  Those yarnovers and decreases can be hard to see.  If it is a complicated lace pattern, it can be difficult to figure out what row you are.  (The same can be true for cable patterns.)  Lifelines are the answer.  I don't know who first came up with this idea but we all owe her/him a big thank you.  The basic principle is that you thread up a needle and run some waste yarn or some other type of thread through the live stitches on a needle.  You then knit the next row taking care that you don't knit the waste yarn.  It looks like the photo below:

You don't want to use project yarn or other bulky fibers as it will distort the tension of those stitches.  I use dental floss as it is thin and the waxiness makes it easy to pull free.  In the video I show how to use a needle to place the lifeline and another technique.  If you have interchangeable needles that use a key to tighten them (like KnitPicks, Chiaoo Goo or Knitters Pride) you can run the thread through the tightening hole and the life line is added as you knit.  (My demonstration of this is poor as I was only working with ten stitches.  It works much better for longer pieces.)

If you have to rip out work, you rip out to the lifeline and your stitches are saved, no laddering down.  You just put the stitches back on the needle.  (See last week's blog entry about how to do this.)

Lifelines can also serve as row markers. I was working on a complicated lace pattern that had a 24 row repeat.  It was very easy to lose your place.  I started putting in life lines every 10 rows.  I found this very useful.  Lifelines


KNITTING SALON
Salon will be on Sunday from 1:30-3:20 pm.  


CURRENT PROJECTS
I finished up the front (or back) of my Wasp Wing dress but as soon as yarn starts arriving for the garments I have signed on to do I will have to put it aside.  I was hoping to finish it before the conference at the end of July but I don't think that will happen.  It will look SO different when it is blocked.  It is the same as the tunic I did for the fall issue but longer.