Why are we afraid to ask for help? | A story about lifelines

A lifeline can be defined as a rope or line used for life-saving, typically one thrown to rescue someone in difficulties in water or one used by sailors to secure themselves to a boat. In the case of knitting it is also used for life-saving 🤣🤣. So why did I hesitate using it?

I am currently working on the Droplet Caplet by Denise Bayron. I am using Lolabean yarn Co yarn of course.

NOTE: please don’t ask her about this yarn as it was a mistake, which means…no!

If you have yet to experience a pattern by Bayron Handmade, you are missing out. Her pattern writing is clear and thorough with outstanding finished projects. Okay back to asking for help and lifelines.

I heard folks talk about using lifelines, but that was for them right? 👀 I mean I can figure it out if I have to right? WRONG GG! Just wrong. It’s ok to need help. Let me tell you guys what had happened.

My grand fur baby 🐶 grabbed this project and ran 🤯 not once but twice 😭😭 so I am in rip out/tink hell. This is when I decided I needed a lifeline. I won’t say the patterns suggests and provides video support for said lifeline.

Why are we this way? Ugh! I am currently tink-ing back to a row that was right and will insert that safety line because if it happens againI’m done!

Let’s talk about this. Do you use lifelines?

Knit on fiber friends….knit on

GG

12 thoughts on “Why are we afraid to ask for help? | A story about lifelines”

  1. I use life lines in brioche or new to me lace knits. Other stuff I can either rip back and pick up or frog and start over. Or I just live with the mistake. Needle and thread can be a friend. But yeah, I feel intimidated asking for help sometimes because maybe I jumped too far ahead of my skills. And maybe someone will call out and ask WHY I did this pattern instead of learning via a simpler pattern. *Note this is ALL in my head. I KNOW people won’t generally do this. 99.9% of the knitters are absolute wonderful helpers and there’s not much judgement regarding patterns.

  2. I use life lines on complex patterns, especially if lots of yarnovers! I have learned to use the hole in my circs that are for the tightening key. I put button thread through the hole and then just knit to the end of the row, with the thread just following along. It works great.

  3. I do the same thing, GG! I resist putting in lifelines but then OF COURSE wish I’d done it when I have to rip back. I’m going to try to be better about it. Why do I resist? Nobody’s perfect!! Lifelines are just a backup. 🙂

    Thanks for this post, I needed it!

  4. I don’t ask for help. Fear of appearing weak. I used a lifeline, on my Peach Turtle Dove and your saw what I did with that. I looked more like the Inchworm, on the old cartoons, than a turtle. Because you warned about the size, we are below a certain height, I chose size medium, Instead of a n XL. I should not have doubted my instincts, frogged back, 5 inches at the raglan, asked for advice and made a Small. When I finished my knitting, it didn’t look like, the beautiful Turtle Dove, at all. But it was so different, than anything around, that my teenaged Granddaughter loves it. So it was not a waste. I have bought more yarn. If I have trouble, next time, I will Show up at your PO Box and wait for you to pick me up. #Have a fabulous week on purpose, this coming week.

  5. I have used a lifeline once. I was doing a KAL with some friends, and when one suggested we use lifelines in a certain spot, we did! It was a first cabled pattern for all of us (Declan’s Hat on Ravelry). I wrote the lifelines in so I would know the next time I knit the hat!

  6. I have asked for help on occasion But unfortunately, am careful on whom I ask. Made that mistake many moons ago, did not go well. Currently, in my lace scarf alpaca UFO I have about three life lines. Tinking or frogging back on lace is no joke as a newbie. So I Learnd my lesson since then to utilize life lines when I ask myself.. Do I really want to undo this after all my time on it. Then I think to myself ~well it’s the journey not the destination.. that will come eventually with each project. But, for purposes of trying to practice mindful knitting or intentional knitting (lace? ha!) … I know .. there is a difference. Hence the life line.. when needed. Lol!

  7. I’m late to the party, but this is a great question! Alas, no, I don’t tend to use lifelines. I have this feeling that they’re a ton of effort. And since I have been lucky enough not to need them 99% of the time, I feel like I’m right. But boy howdy, those times when things have gone catastrophically wrong (usually in much the same way you describe), do I wish I’d made the effort!!

  8. I wish I had a lifeline because I’m learning to knit from books, namely Debbie Bliss’ The Knitter’s Book of Knowledge. YouTube videos help some but I long for a friend or a shopkeeper who knits and can help me. Finding others who knit in Houston is like searching for hen teeth. Finding wool is a problem too because we’re so close to the Gulf. People run screaming and clutching their hair when it comes to working with wool. It’s a sunny 51 degrees here yet I still knit on. I’m so glad I found you.

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