Stitch Markers and Lifelines: Never Lose Count Again

A row counter holds a number, and a number can be wrong: a tap too many, a click you forgot, a tally mark made twice. Stitch markers and lifelines don’t hold numbers. They hold places. A marker clipped into row 40 is in row 40 whatever your counter says, and a lifeline threaded through row 48 means you can never lose more than the rows above it. This guide shows how to use both as checkpoints in your knitting, so that losing count means a short recount, not starting over.

Which stitch markers to have

• Ring markers are closed rings that sit on the needle between two stitches. When you reach one, you slip it from the left needle to the right. They mark a place along the row: the beginning of a round, the edges of a lace panel, the end of a pattern repeat.
• Locking markers open and close like small safety pins. They clip into a stitch and stay there, so they mark a row. They can also sit on the needle and do a ring marker’s job, which makes them the kind to buy if you buy only one.
• Split-ring markers are rings with a gap. They hook into a stitch faster than a locking marker, and fall out faster too.
• Scrap yarn does both jobs: a loop of contrasting yarn knotted into a ring for the needle, or a short strand pulled through a stitch. It costs nothing, and it’s gentle on fine yarn.

The difference that matters for counting is this: a marker on the needle travels up with your knitting and marks a column, while a marker in the fabric stays where you put it and marks a row.

Stitch markers for counting rows

A checkpoint every 20 rows

When your counter says 20, clip a locking marker into a stitch of the row you’ve just finished: open it, catch one leg of a stitch that’s on the needle, well away from the edge, and close it. Do the same at 40, 60 and 80, in the same column if you can.

To check a count later, find the nearest marker and count up from it. The marked stitch is the marker’s row, and each V above it is one more row, up to and including the V that hangs from the needle. With a marker in row 40 and 7 stitches above it, you’ve knitted 47 rows. You never have to count more than 19 stitches, and never from the cast-on.

In garter stitch or a busy texture, where rows are harder to tell apart, place a marker every 10 rows instead. The guide to reading your knitting in garter and stockinette shows what to count between markers.

A marker where something happened

Clip a marker into every increase or decrease row as you work it. “Decrease every 8th row” is then easy to check. Starting at the newest marker, call its row 1 and count upwards. Once the row on your needle is number 8, a decrease row comes next. Leave the markers in until the piece is finished and they keep the other tally as well: 5 markers up a sleeve are 5 decrease rows done.

There’s a page about counting increases and decreases with a counter that holds both numbers.

Which side is the right side?

Garter stitch and other reversible fabrics look the same from both sides. Clip a locking marker to the right side, near the bottom edge. When the marker faces you, you’re about to work a right-side row, which in most patterns is an odd-numbered one.

Markers that count stitches

Markers save counting along the row as well as up it.

• Casting on. Place a ring marker after every 20 stitches. For 180 stitches that’s 9 groups, and you only ever count to 20.
• Pattern repeats. A 12-stitch lace repeat worked 8 times is 96 stitches. Put a ring marker after each repeat, and if you reach one with 11 or 13 stitches since the last, the mistake is somewhere in those few stitches. You find it on this row, and not 5 rows later.
• The beginning of a round. In the round, one marker shows where a new round starts, and that’s where you count. There’s a whole guide to how to count rounds when knitting in the round.

Lifelines: a row you can always get back to

A lifeline is a strand of scrap yarn that runs through all the stitches of a single row and stays in the fabric while the knitting grows above it. If the knitting above it goes wrong, you take the needle out and rip back. The unravelling stops at the lifeline, with every stitch of that row sitting on the scrap yarn, ready to go back on the needle. Nothing below it can come undone.

How to put a lifeline in

1. Finish a row you know is right. A plain row is best: in lace, that’s usually the purl row after a pattern row.
2. Cut a piece of smooth scrap yarn, thinner than your working yarn and in a different colour, about 20 cm (8 in) longer than the row is wide. Cotton is ideal. For very fine lace, dental floss works.
3. Thread it onto a blunt darning needle and pass it through each loop on the knitting needle in turn. On a circular needle, push the stitches onto the cable first, where there’s more room.
4. Go past your ring markers, not through them. A marker with the lifeline through it is stuck in that row.
5. Let the two ends hang, and knit the next row as usual, taking care not to knit the lifeline in with the stitches.
6. Write down which row the lifeline is in: on the pattern, or on a paper tag tied to one end.

Some interchangeable needles have a small hole near the join, meant for the tightening key. Thread the lifeline through that hole and knit one row, and the needle draws the lifeline through every stitch as you go. It draws it through your ring markers too, so swap them for locking markers on that row.

How often to place one

Put one in whenever you’d hate to knit the last stretch again:

• in lace, after every pattern repeat, or every 10 to 20 rows;
• before anything you haven’t done before, such as turning a heel, dividing for the sleeves or a first cable crossing;
• before you put a project away for a few weeks.

Leave the old lifeline in until the new one is placed. Many knitters keep two in the work and move the lower one up each time.

Ripping back to a lifeline

1. Slide the knitting needle out of the stitches.
2. Pull the working yarn, winding it up as you go. The rows come undone one after another and stop at the lifeline.
3. Slide a needle through the stitches, following the scrap yarn. A needle a size or two thinner goes in more easily, and you change back to your own needle as you knit the next row.
4. Count the stitches.
5. Knit the next row slowly. If a stitch sits twisted on the needle, knit it through the back loop to straighten it.
6. Set your count back to the lifeline’s row. With tally marks, cross out what you ripped. In Rowpip, you can type the row number in from the menu.

No lifeline? Add one afterwards

In stockinette you can thread a lifeline into rows you’ve already knitted. Choose a row below the mistake and, with scrap yarn on a darning needle, pick up the right-hand leg of every V along that one row. Staying in the same row all the way across is the hard part, so go slowly and check before you rip. In lace it’s much harder, which is the best argument for placing lifelines as you go.

How stitch markers and lifelines work together

Think of three layers, each catching what the one before it missed:

• Your running count, on paper, a clicker or an app. It’s the fastest, and the first to go wrong.
• Row markers are the checkpoints. When the count is in doubt, you recount from the last one: 19 rows at most.
• Lifelines are the safety net. When the knitting itself is wrong, you lose only what’s above the last one.

Here’s how that plays out. You’re knitting a lace shawl with a 16-row repeat, and you put a lifeline in after each repeat: rows 16, 32 and 48. On row 53 you spot a mistake a few rows down that you can’t fix in place. You rip back to the lifeline in row 48, put the stitches back on the needle, set your count to 48, and start again with row 49, which is row 1 of repeat 4. You’ve lost 5 rows and not 53.

Markers and lifelines are half of never losing count. The other half is a running count you can trust, and the guide to how to count rows in knitting puts the two together.