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

[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.