18 April 2010

Safety lines. And you thought those were what mountain climbers used.

Safety lines are commonly used by lace knitters. It is a piece of thread that is run through all of the stitches on your needle every so many rows. If a mistake is discovered you only need to ravel to the safety line and place all of those stitches back on the needle - mistake free.

You don't need to be working on lace to use safety lines. Any knitting that has a complicated pattern can use a safety line. Just run a contrasting thread (using a tapestry needle) through the stitches on your needle. How often? Well, how much do you want to ravel if you make a mistake?
Every five or ten rows or one pattern repeat will do. Whatever you feel comfortable with.

Now, no raveling back in tears for many rows until you can figure where you are in your pattern.