theraineysisters knitting and so much more

To recap:

The directions call for the knitter to cast on 378 sts on a long circular needle.  You are then supposed to split the sts: sts 1-3-5-7-9-11 etc. onto one needle and sts 2-4-6-8-10 etc. onto the other end of the needle they are already on.  If a st is dropped, the cast on edge will come undone and you have to start over.  Sally said this happened to her a couple of times.  It was nice to learn from the mishaps of others (though I felt bad for Surly).   

My Tip:

After casting on the 378 sts, I took two different colors of perle coton about 60″ in length and small, blunt tapestry needle to create two “lifelines.”  A lifeline is a thread or waste yarn used as a holder so you can rip back if necessary without losing your sts.  Lace knitters often do this because it is difficult to rip out lacework.  Perle coton is a heavy-weight cotton thread – I have a lot of it around because I use it for my beaded knitting projects.  A lightweight string or smooth, light-weight cotton yarn would also work. 

I used the tapestry needle threaded with perle cotton to go through every other st (1-3-5-7-9 etc.), keeping the sts on the circular needle — I slipped the sts to the cord section of the circular needle so it was easier to pass the tapestry needle through. After several inches, I changed to the other color and threaded the tapestry needle through sts 2-4-6-8-10, etc.  I went back and forth between the two colors until all the sts had been threaded onto the appropriate lifeline.  So, one color thread had the odd sts and the other had the even sts.   I did not remove the sts from the circular needle at this point — I just threaded the perle coton through the sts.  I carefully checked as I went along to make sure I had not skipped any of the sts.  It did not take as long as it sounds!!

Once my life lines were threaded through all the sts, I tied the two ends of the perle coton together at both the beginning and end of the row.  Then I started the transfer process to the other knitting needles.  It worked really well.  The sts kind of “opened up” like the parting of the Red Sea and made it easy to transfer the sts.   This step went much more quickly than I anticipated and NO fear of dropped sts.

As I was knitting, I kept the life lines in for the first couple of rows until all the sts were knitted and my pattern was established.  That way, if sts were missed (which did happen) or I made a mistake setting up the lace pattern, I would not have to start completely over.

That was a very long-winded explanation (z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z), but if it helped one knitter it would be worth it.