How to UNRAVEL KNITTING the RIGHT WAY (3 Methods)/wool products

Hey guys, today I'll show you how to insert a lifeline into your knitting. A lifeline is a way to unravel your work safely. You insert a piece of scrap yarn into a row of stitches, then continue knitting as normal. If you make a mistake, you can unravel your knitting to the lifeline, which is holding your stitches. Wow! Place the stitches back on the needle, and voila, you can continue knitting without having to unravel to the beginning. Let's go through how to do it step by step. So here I've got a little swatch of stockinette stitch, and we're going to insert a lifeline into this row of live stitches. So here I've got a tapestry needle, and what I'm going to do is get a little bit of scrap yarn. Now you want to choose scrap yarn that is a contrasting color to your work. So this is a nice bright red. I'm going to thread this up onto my tapestry needle. You want to choose a yarn that's a contrasting color to your knitting. You also want it to be smooth, so no mohair or fun fur. Here's a tip. Lifelines don't need to be yarn. You can use cotton string or unwaxed dental floss because it's very smooth. So use yarn or string that's the same weight or thinner than the yarn you're knitting with. So I'm going to take my tapestry needle and insert it into these live stitches, being careful not to split the yarn with my needle. So I'm just going through these stitches, picking them up, and then I'm going to bring the yarn through. So I'm picking up four or five stitches in one go, and then drawing the yarn through the stitches. Now my scrap yarn has picked up all of the stitches on my needle, so now that my lifeline is in my stitches, I can just continue knitting. So the next row, I would ignore the lifeline completely. So I'm knitting into my stitches, pretending like the lifeline does not even exist. So I find that it's nice if you get the lifeline on the bottom of your stitches. So if your lifeline is sort of riding over, you want to make sure that the lifeline is just pulled down. It's kind of on the bottom of your stitches. So right here I can see the lifeline, and I'm just going to ignore it, knit into my stitch as normal. You don't want to knit into the lifeline or incorporate the lifeline into your knitting. Just act as if the lifeline is totally invisible. So as you knit, you can see that the lifeline is incorporated into the knitting. It's just holding the stitches, keeping them safe. So continue knitting, pretending like your lifeline does not even exist. So I've knit a couple rows, and you can see the lifeline right here. And let's say something terrible happens and I make a mistake. This is where the lifeline comes in. So instead of trying to pick up these live stitches, well, I can just pull my knitting down to the lifeline. We're going to grab the working yarn and just start unraveling. And at some point, you can see that this is where the lifeline is, and it's holding the stitches. So once we've hit the lifeline, I'm going to take out my needle and then just start picking up those stitches. So I'm literally just following the lifeline. Follow it and pick up the stitches that it's holding. And now I've gotten to the point where it's unraveling. So you can unravel two or three stitches at a time and then carefully pick them back onto the needle. Unravel a few more stitches and then pick them back up. This is a very careful way of doing things. Both ways are totally fine. And here are my last two stitches. Bam. There we go. And if you don't know where the stitches are, you can kind of just tug on the lifeline a little bit, and that'll pull the stitch right up. And I can now see that it's right here. Pick up that last stitch, and now my stitches are back onto my needle. Awesome. Once all the stitches are back on the needle, do a quick count to ensure that all the stitches have been picked up and there's no stitch left behind. So at this point, I can just pick up my needle and continue knitting. Or if I'm feeling a bit confident, I can just pull out the lifeline just like this. Now the lifeline is off of my knitting. And I can continue knitting now as normal. So that is how you insert a lifeline into your knitting. Now I'll go through some tips on inserting lifelines into lace, cables, and special stitches that require knitting into the stitch below, like brioche and fisherman's rib. Let's go. When knitting a stitch pattern with a repeat, consider inserting a lifeline at the end of the repeat. If you need to rip back to the lifeline, you'll know which row you're on so there's no confusion. Whichever row you choose to insert the lifeline, just make sure to be consistent so that your future self will know where in the repeat to pick up again. Lace knitting really requires lifelines because of all the intricate work you're doing. Lifelines in lace may seem confusing because of all those yarn overs, but the same principles apply. Just insert a lifeline at the end of a repeat or anywhere else in the repeat as long as you make a note of it. I personally like inserting a lifeline on the right side, or the side where all the yarn overs and decreases happen so that if you need to unravel, the next row is an easy purl or knit row. But that's just me. Lifelines in the round couldn't be easier. Just insert a lifeline at the beginning of the round and go through all the stitches on the circular needle or double pointed needle until you get to the end of the round. Then continue knitting your rounds just like you would when knitting flat. Easy. With cables, I would avoid inserting a lifeline into a row or round where cable crosses happen. If you need to unravel, there's a chance those cable crosses could uncross. I would make life easier by choosing a simple row to insert a lifeline into. In this cable chart, these rows would work. But I would avoid this row and the row below it where the big cable cross happens. So what happens if you're knitting fisherman's rib or brioche stitch where you need to knit into the stitch below when you're doing the knits? How are you going to navigate that lifeline? It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite simple. You would just knit as you normally do. So here I've inserted a lifeline and we're just going to continue knitting our fisherman's rib as normal. First stitch is a knit stitch. The next stitch is a knit into the stitch below. I'm just going to ignore that lifeline and then knit into the stitch below. There we go. We're going to purl into the next stitch. This stitch we're going to knit into the stitch below. We're not even going to pay attention to that lifeline right there. Just poke our needle into the stitch below and there we are. Here's the next knit stitch. We're going to ignore the lifeline, knit into the stitch below. We're just unbothered by it. So don't be confused or frazzled by the presence of the lifeline. Just act as if it doesn't even exist. So that's how you get by when you are knitting into the stitch below with a lifeline. In conclusion, insert a lifeline into a row or round to hold your stitches in case you make a mistake later on. A lifeline can be a strand of yarn, string, or even unwaxed dental floss. It's ideal to choose something smooth and of thinner or equal weight to the yarn you're knitting with. Use a tapestry needle threaded with the lifeline and insert it into the live stitches of the round or row. Then continue knitting as normal. If you need to unravel your work, then the lifeline is there for you, keeping your stitches safe. And that's all for lifelines. Like this video if you liked it and subscribe for more videos like this one. I'm Davina of SheepandStitch.com. Thanks for watching and happy knitting!