Also, I've learned the hard way, don't thread through stitch markers and make lifeline long enough on both ends so that when you do the next row it doesn't tug out on the ends. Thanks for the video!

Oh my goodness! I have been knitting for a decade and can't even believe I never knew about this. I feel like my life is changed forever! THANK YOU!!!!!

There is one lace pattern that gives me fits every single time I try it. I remembered you showing this lifeline technique and used it. Game changer! No more white knuckle knitting or anxiety. I have just started to knit again and you have taught me so much. Thank you, Staci!

Because I am new to making socks, and because I have such a hard time with the toes and then the heels, I decided to put lifelines in right after finishing the toe, and then, before starting the heel. This way, I'm not ripping back and starting over again. This has helped IMMENSELY. Now, I'm almost through my third ever sock and it's only taken me a day--instead of the week and a half each of the first two took me. I'm so delighted I've told my kids I want more yarn for more socks for my birthday.

I have heard of lifelines but never knew what it meant. What an awesome concept that I will forever be grateful for.

Honestly, you have the best instruction videos I’ve ever seen on any topic, and you are my “go to” for every knitting “how to.” Thank you so much!

Staci, thank you so much for your instructions. As always, they are easy to follow and improve my knitting skills by adding more tools to my mental knitting bag. ❤

As you were ripping that out, I was sad, so much so, that when you said:"Is this breaking your heart?" I answered out loud a definite YES, because I am such a slow knitter and your stitches were so pretty. :-)

I just want to thank you for this video! I have been having a horrible go at a hat with simple lace and have frogged it twice because I couldn't save my stitches when I've made a mistake. With this technique I feel so much more confident about finally getting this hat done!

Your videos are so lovely to watch. They make me a happy knitter. 🌞 Thanks! 🌻

Glad to see actual tutorials on this site again!

Thanks a ton for this tip. Am a beginner and i rip my 1st scarf 4 times the whole. Now i start my new project fearlessly.

I recently had to look up your reactive lifeline because I messed up and I was so grateful. You've introduced me to do many things. Thank you!

Staci, you're an amazing person! I just love watching your instructional videos! They've saved me a ton of headaches! Keep up the great work!

Second time I’ve watched this great video. I can’t believe I have been forgetting to use lifelines... It would have saved me so much grief! I’m so glad I finally realized that there is a way to knit without tears... I have restarted too many easy projects, just because I did nit have a lifeline. Never again. The first method makes sense to me, as I have vision issues that make threading... and using...very thin threads hard. Thanks.

Thank you so much ♥️ This has been a great insurance policy as I knit my first hat in Fisherman’s Rib. I have found it helpful to place the lifeline very loosely so that it stretches with the fabric, and also to be very careful when knitting the first round after the lifeline to ensure the line doesn’t get knitted in with the stitch, otherwise it’s much harder to remove 😃

After seeing this video, I started a completely unfamiliar pattern. After knitting about two inches, I decided to try the lifeline and I'm so glad I did! I think I tore my work out three times before I finally knitted the pattern correctly. This is the first project I've tried with my ChaioGoo red cable interchangeables and I love that they have a hole for a lifeline already in the needle.

I'm grateful to learn both methods. Thank you.

I use the hole in the cord method but I use the crochet thread not dental floss. I just put it into the hole. Lifelines are a lifesaver. Love your post by the way, you have taught me so much, thank you!!

Great video! I love lifelines. Makes me feel so much better about working difficult lace and cable patterns.

This could not have been more timely. Wish I had known about the PRO part first but you saved me. Your videos, especially the "how to knit socks" have helped me be such a better knitter! Kind of like that ALL I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT LIFE I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN, insert 'knitting' for LIFE and 'your sock videos' for KINDERGARTEN.

Oh wow! Thank you, thank you. A lifeline for sure!

Thanks for this video, Staci. Any time I need knitting help, I look for Very Pink-- the best. And the tune at the beginning always makes me happy!

Whenever i use lifeline i thank you and bless you.

Oh my god thank you so much you have no idea how hard I’m working to start an Etsy shop on my own at 15 and when I come home I like to knitt as a stress reliever but it stresses me out so much more when I drop a stitch.thank you so much I can’t wait to try this our

Great video. Doing this now before turning a heel. I have recommended your channel to my friends who I am teaching to knit!

This is very helpful for my complicated lacy cable knit blanket I am currently working on and that particular pattern you are demonstrating is very cute!

Love your videos, so easy to understand! I learned something new about Lifelines!

Thank you!☺ it was brilliant that you actually unravelled the work. ☺

it did break my heart! thanks for making it easier.

For anyone wanting to thread the interchangeable needle cord, as shown in the last part of the video, I recommend looking into floss threaders (e.g. by GUM). I use those things to thread my serger when sewing and they're awesome, because they're no-effort threading and the tip is thin and stiff-yet-flexible enough to thread tiny eyes.

Great idea! Thanks for sharing.

Total light bulb moment! Thank you

This is a great technique...very useful!! Thank you!

this video comes at the perfect time, i'm about to start my most ambitious project to date. i was just saying to myself "i should learn how to do lifelines" hahah

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

SUCH a good thing to do. Great video :)

This comment has nothing to do with the video, but just wanted to thank you for showing the knit picks short needle set. I just received the set I ordered today and they are wonderful! I have learned so much from watching your videos. I started learning to knit last year.

Important note about using the "thread interchangable needle hole with dental floss" method: if you have stitch markers placed, they will end up trapped on your life-line instead of moving along your rows with you! That's why I don't use this method for lace, the stitch markers are more useful that dragging along a thread with my knitting, I just place the life-line after I'm done the row.

Genius! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Thank you 🤩

Thank you for this tutorial!

Thanks so much this is super helpful I'm learning everyday 😊

I have started using lifelines regularly. I almost always miss one stitch with it, but it does help when I have to rip some out. I had heard with KnitterKnitters pride there was a way to just knit across, and tried it with crochet thread. That didn't work! Thanks for the tip. Dental Floss!

thank you so much I am going to use this tonight on a sweater back!!

Fabulous! Thank you!

Love you so much thank you for this !!!😊

Great idea

Never knee that. Biy how helpful that would have been, especially when I had 300 stitches on a needle when I made a mistake. Woukd have been less stressful. Thank you for the tip.👍🏼👍🏼🧶

I use lifelines for heel location for afterthought heels in socks. They are very handy and make picking up the stitches a snap.

Thank u!

Lifesaver, I would say.

Wow, my heart sunk as soon you started frogging. Thanks for the demonstration and it is a ​great tool for me to use soon in a project.

Thank you again, I really need to do this. Lately, I have been Mrs. Error

I'd never heard the term proactive lifelines before so had to check it out. I insert mine the same way with needle and leftover yarn of Aunt Lydia's crochet cotton Size 10 or 20. I also tie the ends together on large projects. I think lifelines no matter what method you choose to use are proactive. 😉

I use the second method, and the "safety pin" stitch markers. I use crochet thread (or sometimes "ravel cord" (nylon) from my knitting machines. Thanks for this demo, and for adding the 2nd method, as I was about to remind you.

Swear to god, every time I use a lifeline, I never need it, when I don’t use one, I screw up!

Pretty stitch pattern.

I forgot about the hole in the needle cord for lifelines. That seems easiest, but both methods are super easy. Thanks!

Great thank you

If I have lots of stitches to save, I use thread and a tiny triangle of masking/painters tape: I stick the tip of the thread down on the needle just behind the last stitch (tape perfectly smooth, stitches bunched up a little) then pull the stitches down over the thread and peel off the tape.

brilliant! :)

Make sure to use a thread / cord that is more slippery than your yarn. Embroidery floss works well, too.

thankyou

I am so sorry i am missing all your Great Tutorials......:(

Thank you, I knit lots of charity hats, and sometimes the crown shaping goes haywire... This will save me time and yarn,

Really good trick with dental floss!!! 😃😃 Thank you

Super helpful, thank you! Looking at a set of addi needles and trying to decide if I care about space for a lifeline, turns out I don't!

🤩💯

I use lifelines often, but I have made the mistake of not picking up every stitch from the lifeline after ripping back. I didn’t realize it and at the end of the project when I pulled out all the lifelines there was a hole from a dropped stitch. I’m a beginner knitter and I’m afraid I did this several times. I would find these dropped stitches way back in the work and I couldn’t figure out how it kept happening then I realized it was from not picking up every stitch from the life line. Now I check and double check myself. It’s easy to do especially with dental floss or very thin thread as the lifeline.

I think I like your way better than Dental Floss, which I need in the mornings and evening.....:)

Speaking from experience, the second method is not a good idea if you have solid stitch markers in your work. The lifeline will trap them and you'll have to get out more stitch markers to continue.

This is timely for me because I forget to place lifelines as I went on a brioche project and had to rip back several rows! 😖 when I get squared away I am definitely getting my lifelines in my work again

Like a life jacket on a boat in the middle of the ocean🏊‍♀️

Great tutorial!! Thx. Side note: what is the stitch in the lavender swatch?!

It really was breaking my heart as you took out the stitches

Hi Staci, I love your videos and have used a lifeline. Thank goodness I have. However I didn't add one to my recent project and missed a yarn over, tried to fix it, but not coming out so well. So decided to frog it but I'm adding a lifeline after the fact, BUT which bar on a yarn over do you put the lifeline through??

I have just had to tear a cable knit sweater 2X out because 1) no lifeline 2) once I thought I knew where I was at in the cabling I wasn't and couldn't figure it out (even after I watched vids on how to tell). So a lifeline would have been a huge help.

My problem is when I put in a lifeline, when I work the next row, I tend to pick up the lifeline. Any suggestions to prevent this?

I wish I had seen this video before I messed up the raglan increases on my sweater 😅😂😭

I put a life line in a scarf that I was working on in brioche stitch (using worsted weight yarn). I used a slightly lighter yarn for the life line. Unfortunately, it left quite a visible line in the work that I only discovered after I had already knit a good bit. I tried blocking to see if that would take care of the line, but it didn't. It lessened it a little, but it's still there. I decided to abandon it. I need the lifelines, but I don't want to ruin the piece. What is the best material for life lines? Does cotton crochet thread come in different weights? Or would anything labeled as cotton crochet thread work? Thanks in advance for advice.

This sounds pretty simple. I have 1 question. If I am using a fine fingerings weight yarn what weight yarn would I use for my lifeline

Are we gonna talk about the fact that Elizabeth Moss here teaches knitting in between filming “The Handmaids Tale?”

I am knitting 1X1 ribbing in the round with magic loop on interchangeable needles and tried the techniques of threading floss through the hole but something went terribly wrong! Help please?

can I put a lifeline in every row? asking for a friend 😬

Hi, I'm looking for your tutorial on calculating CO sts by multiplying and dividing for the change of needle size and yarn. can you direct me to your video? Thank you

Have you any details on that pattern you used in that swatch -

Hi Staci, this is a great video, as are all of your others! However, lace and other complicated patterns frequently make use of stitch markers, which you do not address in this video or your other lifeline videos. If you put a life line in (especially one WHILE you are knitting the row, it will continue to run through the stitch markers, making it unusable (because it will continue to travel up with the marker).

Since this is an older video,you may not see this comment,but I'm thinking the needle probably drags bc the dental floss is waxed. I bet if done with UNwaxxed dental floss that problem wouldn't be a problem~!! I'm going to give it a try and see if that works~!!

The later only if you aren’t using stitch markers

How do you remove the lifeline once done? It doesn't really pull out smoothly

Hi I have a question is not about lifelines is about what means in a knitting pattern rib 4 m 1 can you explained please thank you

you gotta be careful not to get the dental floss caught in a stitch marker when you use the last method shown!

I use another method: I rip one row before the mistake and unravel that row one stitch at a time to my needles

You trap your stitch markers if you do thread through the hole in your interchangable method.