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

[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.

[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.

[pensnest]

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