A lifeline is where you thread a piece of cotton or dental floss into the stitches of a row of knitting so that it you can safely rip out knitting, back to the lifeline row and that cotton holds the live stitches so that you can pick them up more easily. When I am doing complicated work I tend to do a lifeline every now and again so that I can confidently go ahead knowing that if I need to go back it is easy.
The way I work a lifeline in is very straightforward. I knit with circular needles with inter-changable points and they have a little tiny hole near the connector where you place a 'key' to tighten them in place. The hole provides a perfect 'eye' to thread a lifeline through so that once it is threaded in the knitting needle, it just sits in each loop of knitting in a row while each stitch is made. At the end of the row I take it out of the knitting needle eye and presto - lifeline. If you use regular needles, you may have to thread a lifeline into a row after you have knitted it with a regular sewing needle.
There is heaps about it on google if you try: "lifeline knitting" in the search box.
jackrose, thank you so much for your helpful suggestions! This is my first knitting project in about 15 years lol so I really appreciate all the experience.
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