knitting | Stitch markers

From:

I like my stitch markers and use them; the ones that look like little diaper pins are the best. If you buy your knitting notions in a crafting store they're usually dirt cheap as well. Can't claim that they're as environmentally friendly as the wee bits of a scrap yarn, though.

From:

owlectomy

I have some stitch markers I bought off Etsy. I very very very rarely use them.

I think it depends on what kinds of techniques you use in your knitting, but I find that being able to read your knitting is the fastest alternative to using stitch markers. I've heard that people have had success with snipping circles from plastic drinking straws -- those may work a little better than loops of yarn. (The one big drawback that I can think of to yarn loops is that if you're distracted or not watching your knitting you may accidentally knit into the stitch-marker-loop.)

From:

pinesandmaples

Stitch markers enable me to read my knitting on the fly. Switching from one chart to another? Marker. Beginning of the round on a sock? Marker. 600 stitch lace shawl that has a death wish for me? Markers markers markers.

Having a visual or tactile note in my knitting means I can knit through movies I actually want to watch, conversations that require eye-contact, and new bus routes.

From:

rainbow

i made some stitch markers from little rings, then found a small stash of plain plastic ones that had been my mother's in the 60s/70s. they don't seem any more helpful than the bits of yarn, and in some ways less (for me; i have poor fine motor control due to neuro issues; the rings are enough heavier that they fall more often, while the loops of yarn tend to fall less frequently. the brightly coloured bits of yarn are also easier for me to find when i do drop them).

From:

jumpuphigh

I use the cheap ones that look like diaper pins as well. I have them in two colors and I have found that to be very helpful. If yarn is working for you, stick with it. It doesn't work for me.

From:

james

I used to never use stitch markers and thought they were just an unnecessary gadget. Then I started knitting patterns where it really, really made it easier. Actual stitch markers (cheap plastic or moderately not-cheap rings) are easier by far to use than scraps of yarn.

I've found really nice stitch markers on Etsy for as little as $6 a set, but for me part of the fun of using them is having neat stitch markers, like penguins and footballs. So, ultimately, your mileage may vary. It depends mostly, I think, on what you're knitting.

From:

scheherezhad

I use stitch markers pretty frequently, but I tend to do things like knit complicated lace while I'm at my knit group where I'm not paying constant attention to my project, so I often end up needing to stop and check where I am in a pattern repeat. I also make jewelry, so I make my own stitch markers. YMMV.

From:

pineapplechild

I tend to use stitch markers when doing things like lace, and weather or not that's an actual stitch marker, a loop of yarn, or a paper clip entirely depends on what's to hand.

From:

seryn

I bought jump rings and threaded a bead on, then glued it. Beads weren't fancy so they were $2 for 50, jump rings were a couple bucks for a hundred. The jump rings work just fine without the beads too, unless you need to demarcate different things, then the beading helps.

I've also made my own loops using wire.

I don't like using scraps of yarn as stitch markers because I continually knit the marker.

Twist ties from bread work pretty well though.

I don't see any reason why you should pay $12 for a set of 6 stitch markers certainly. But I certainly appreciated the upgrade when I stopped using scraps of yarn.

From:

sailorcoruscant

I've done all of the above. If it's a quick and not that complicated pattern I'll just throw on a loop of contrasting yarn, but if it's a big lacy project that is going to remain on needles for months I'm likely to use pretty stitch markers. I make my own jewellery, and it's very easy to throw some beads on a loop of wire and crimp it closed.

Before I took up beading, I used to use earrings as stitch markers (obviously they need to be closed loops or you end up losing your place - learned that one the hard way). They're a nice free alternative for your inner poor student.

Actually, in the spirit of community and all the rest, I'd be happy to make you some bead stitch markers in this style (not my store) and post them to you so you can play around and experiment. PM me with a postal address if you'd like to do that.

From:

bedlamsbard

I also make my own stitch-markers, since I have jewelry-making equipment, and I use them mainly when I'm doing complicated lace for things like the border, the center, and anything else that needs to be marked. Before I started making stitch markers, I used scraps of yarn and rings. (At that point in time, I wore seven to nine rings, so whenever I needed a stitch marker I'd pull one off and stick it on the needle. The downside of this is that rings have a tendency to get caught in the knitting, but that depends what kind of ring it is (smooth bands do better than rings with gems in or complicated patterns). They're a little heavier than stitch markers, so I wouldn't use them on slender needles.) I found that the problem with yarn scraps for me was that the loop would start coming undone and it was much harder to tell when you hit a scrap marker, while with a contrasting marker (metal, whatever), you definitely know when one shows up, which is the point for me.

As far as losing them (or not) goes, I keep my stitch markers in the same box I use for my jewelry when I'm not using them.

From:

jenett

I actually find the slightly different weight of simple/small stitchmarkers very handy. My current project is one of the Folk Shawls book shawls (six stitch repeats). I do a stitch marker every 2 repeats, plus to help me track the stuff on the ends.

That way, when I get distracted by something (I usually watch TV-or-movie-like things while knitting) I don't have to work back very far to figure out where I was. (And I started knitting while I was having lots of brain fog issues, so the less mental work I had to do, the more likely I was to keep knitting.)

I've tried one of the KnitPicks plastic ones, but the ones I really like are these ones They're a soft bendable plastic, so they have a nice give to them.

I do drop them occasionally, but it's more likely I tip over the box (which I've learned how to avoid) than that I lose one off the needle. I got several sets, so even if I lose some, there's still plenty to work with, and I use the different colors to make it easy to see where the start of the front side is, etc. (They're a little over $5 for 27, so not too pricy for something I reuse a lot.)

I also have a set of bigger heavy ones with stones that I like for simpler patterns (where I'm just marking the center stitch, or something like that.)

From:

synecdochic

it's very personal. if you knit complicated lace, you almost certainly need them; if you knit less complex stuff, they can help but aren't necessarily as vital. i personally use them all the time whenever i have a pattern where I need to do something different at a certain point, because that tells my fingers "okay, stop and do something different here!" and I can totally knit without paying a lot of attention to what i'm doing.

i notice you have an etsy shop and make jewelry -- it's fairly easy to make your own stitch markers. check out our etsy shop for details: essentially, it's a stick-pin with something pretty on it attached to a jump ring attached to whatever you're using for the ring. (we generally use the toggles from bar-and-toggle clasps that we get for like $2 a bag at michaels; some people do wire wrap for the whole thing, or use flexible beading wire/crimp beads/crimp bead covers.)

if you're really undecided about whether you'd find them useful, i'd be happy to send you a few samples! we have a bunch that we've made for next month's phat fiber box, and we made a bunch extra, so we could totally send you a few to try!

From:

quartzpebble

Everyone has opinions! I am pretty much the opposite of you; I knit complicated lace and just read my knitting for that (unless the pattern is one of those pseudo-freeform ones that you can't predict from the previous rows), but for small things like gloves that involve shaping, wow, it got so much easier when I realized there was a reason lots of people use them.

I just use some spare jump rings from my partner's chainmail hobby, when I do.

From:

cpolk

I bought a few meters of narrow satin ribbon in different colours and just tie them into loops and use that as stitch markers.

From:

alexbayleaf

I agree with

synecdochic for the most part. I never used them at first, then used some plastic rings I picked up somewhere (some ebay'd knitting stash, maybe? pretty sure I didn't buy them intentionally) and now use some simple beaded ones from Etsy. If I'm just marking eg. end of a round when knitting a sweater, anything will do. If I have several per row to mark changes in pattern or something, I start to want something heavier and slippier than a bit of scrap yarn. Having different colours/styles also helps me remember what's what, eg. "the red bead is the end of the round". I find that the metal ones with a single, non-jangly bead are nicely weighted and slip easily from needle to needle as I knit, but definitely wouldn't say they're *necessary*. I say go with what works for you.

From:

commodorified

I use the soft rubber rings in green and purple. I use them a lot and I love them to bits. OTOH I am incredibly easily distracted.

From:

lannamichaels

I use stitch markers all the time. I use both plastic stitch markers and your average safety pins. (My current Big Project has 12 plastic and 2 safety pins on it right now). I prefer the plastic. I own, but very rarely use, ring ones that don't unlock, and ones with gaps that don't lock at all. There's nothing like using stitch markers to count how many you've cast on and the marking-ten markers keep falling off. I like the plastic locking markers because 1) plastic, so I don't have to worry about sharp, 2) big enough to slide along my needle and cable as I'm going (the safety pins aren't that wide, and any safety pin I could get that's wide enough would be too long to do it without completely getting in the way), and 3) can be used between stitches or into a stitch. I use safety pins mostly to mark the beginning of the first round or something where it doesn't ever move, anything that moves is a plastic stitch marker. I'll also tie a marker along the end of yarn attached to the ball after I've cut it, so it's very easy for me to start using that yarn again and I don't have to search to find the end. And my stitch markers weren't expensive, it was about two bucks for twenty of them, and I think that's less than how much I spent on the safety pins when I bought them years ago.

From:

sporky_rat

I have some that

bedlamsbard made for me but before that I used the jumbo paperclips. Worked surprisingly well, but I really like the ones Bedlam made.

From:

momijizukamori

I have a 50-pack of brass split rings (like the one keys go on, just pretty small) that cost me like $3 at Micheals. I like them because they don't come apart like yarn loops inevitably do on me, and they were cheap enough that if I lose one I don't care.

I actually have a set of fancy ones with little dangly bits that someone gave me, and while they're really pretty, I find the dangly bit get caught in my work sometimes, which is annoying.

From:

19_crows

If what you're doing is working, keep right on doing that.

However, I find stitch markers really handy. I never buy the fancy ones, though. I knit a lot of cable and aran type patterns and I like to separate each pattern with rubber o rings. Originally I got them at the hardware store but they come in packages of two, so I got 200 or so from somebody on eBay who sold stuff for fly fishermen.

I also like the coil-less safety pins. I mark the right side of things where that isn't obvious from the start. When I do decreases or increases I put in a safety pin each time. That way I can easily see how many times I've increased or decreased. I got these from Patternworks or some mail order place.

From:

hazel

I've only ever needed them for one project, and in that case I needed like 16 of them, so ended up using sleeper earrings for most of it as I only have 1 set of 4 stitch markers. As it turned out, I found the sleepers worked better than the proper stitch markers (plus I can wear them when I'm not using them for lace knitting).

From:

snakeling

I bought a pack of 100 tiny hair elastic ties for less than 3 €. The nice thing about it is that there are lots of different colours, so I got a pack in neon colours which contrast nicely with my yarn, and I can use two different colours to signal different types of repeat, for example. The cheap price means I'm not fussed if I have to cut them because I knitted them or if I lose one.

From:

aunty_marion

I use that sort as well, for on-the-needle markers. I get mine from Claire's Accessories, and they cost something like £3 or £2.50 for 100. They show up well against anything (well, nearly - I'm knitting a shawl that has all the neon colours in it, so nothing shows up perfectly!).

For in-the-knitting markers, I use the little Clover 'safety-pin' type. They're helpful for marking - as I am at the moment - the centre stitch between paired yarn-over increases, or the centre decrease, when working a mitred corner; or for marking the top/bottom of a pattern repeat, the start of a round on socks, and so on.

From:

mommy

That's what I do, too. I found a pack of 750 for $1, and I'm perfectly happy with how they work.

From:

hobbitbabe

I don't use expensive ones. I use the ones that are like little rubber washers, or the kind that's like little snap-closed sleeper earrings. They fall off the needle much less frequently than loops of scrap yarn and are less likely to get mistakenly knitted into the stitch. I can feel it approaching in the dark and can slow down near the end of the round or the change of pattern. Today I didn't have one with me and I was using a quilting safety pin, and it was significantly slower.

Yes, I lose them. They're all over the house and they collect in the Roomba.

From:

jackandahat

I use the little snag-free hair elastics - cost a pound for a pack of a few hundred, so I don't care if I lose them or have to cut one out. Plus they came in colours so I can do things like mark different repeats differently.

The commercial ones might be better, but for me it came down to what you're saying - because I know I would have a hard time keeping track and I'd be annoyed if I'd spent a lot of money on them. Plus - I don't want something fancy dangling in my knitting, I feel like it would get in the way.

From:

cme

The only stitch markers I use are the safety-pin style for when I want to put one through a stitch (instead of having it ride along the needle in the current row).

For markers that need to ride along the current row, I use yarn, always, because hard stitch markers give me ladders. I recommend crochet cotton for this is you have any reason to have any; it's cheap, fine gauge, can be brightly-colored (for contrast), and doesn't have fuzz to get caught in your stitches. Lots of small pieces of it take no space at all to carry and it you lose one, there's plenty more where that came from. It also generally doesn't fray.

And, as someone else mentioned, I prefer to read my knitting whenever possible. It means I don't get screwed if I drop or lose the marker, and I personally find the interruption of dealing with the marker to be annoying. (I hate bookmarks, though, too. :) The only things I voluntarily use stitch markers for are things like marking the center stitch.

From:

pensnest

I've only recently started using stitch markers, because I have gone from basic stocking stitch and rib to doing bits of cabling and knitting in the round. If you are doing really simple knitting you probably don't need them at all, but they might be useful to remind you of things, eg 'garter stitch border starts here' or 'change colour'.

At my Stitch & Bitch group I was recommended to go into a Claire's Accessories shop and find a little bag of tiny, variously coloured rubber rings. I think they're used in hair, er, somehow. These are brilliant. They cost virtually nothing, and they slip neatly onto the needle with no fuss and no weight, they're soft and don't snag. I use them paired to mark the beginning of cable sections, etc. Admittedly there is a nimbus of tiny rubber rings around my knitting chair now, they seem to travel readily... I love the pretty, decorative stitch markers (including those in

synecdochic's Etsy shop) but the little rubber rings are all you need.

From:

pinesandmaples

Beware the rubber rings + overly warm climes. (Which is to say, don't take them on vacation to the tropics!)

I may or may not have had such things melt to my knitting...and I may or may not have cried big fat sobs when I discovered it.

From:

pensnest

Oh, lord! That would be sob-worthy, indeed.

From:

hugh_mannity

I've used bits of yarn, paper clips, safety pins, dental retainer elastics, and "proper" stitch markers.

I've got a nice stash of fancy beaded markers which I very rarely use. What I use the most are the ones like little safety pins. They're very useful for marking the beginning of a sock round when using dpns because you can clip them to a stitch and not worry about them falling off the dpn.

From:

liseuse

I always use bits of yarn, but I don't knit terribly complex lace patterns. I mainly use them for marking the beginning of sock rows. Stitch markers are one of those things I keep meaning to buy, and just never get around to.

From:

evilawyer

I've used both yarn and paper clips and commercially made markers. Both can be made to work. However, I have found that the improvised methods tend to cause problems if you carry your work around with you in a bag, briefcase, etc. because they can slip out or snag easier than the smoother manufactured versions. That's just my two cents, though. I'm sure there are other people out there who have never had this kind of trouble.

Edited (I was distracted while commenting. I distract easily at times. I use markers.) Date: 2011-10-19 04:43 pm (UTC)

From:

ironed_orchid

I mostly just jump rings and paper clips.

On some stitch patterns with an easily visible repeat, I don't bother at all, but I do like them for things like starting raglan shaping.

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