Stitch markers

[untonuggan]

I realize I'm probably opening up a whole kettle of fish by asking this, but I am new to knitting and wonder whether it's worth it to bother buying stitch markers. Right now I'm just using a loop of a contrasting scrap yarn as a stitch marker. It can be a little cumbersome, but I don't have to worry about losing it (can always get more small bits of yarn). Annoyingly, the acrylic yarns tend to fray a bit.

I've read that it's much smoother and faster to use the commercially made stitch markers, but I do wonder (a) if that is just slick marketing, (b) about the wasted plastic/shipping/processing costs to the environment, (c) about what happens when I lose the expensive little things.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions and input, folks! I think I will go crazy if I try to respond to every reply, so I'll just say thanks here!

Comments

[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.