Stitch markers?

[tankgirl73]

What do you all use for stitch and row markers?

The commercial ones I see in the store always seem so huge. I think they're intended more for the kind of thing where you're changing colours...??? They also have an opening so you can slip them on, but I'd be worried about them slipping OFF heh...

Anyway, I just need something that marks the start of the round when knitting in the round... or when I'm casting on 132 stitches I'd like to mark every 10 to help me keep track... And they don't need an opening because they're just going over the edge of the needle anyway.

I tried using a little tied piece of a contrasting yarn, but it kept 1) fraying and 2) coming untied at inconvenient moments. Not sure how it did that in fact.

I've got a bunch of beading supplies and thought I'd be all clever and use some little jump rings. But my jump rings are TOO little. They'd work on size 0-2 needles, I think, but the size 4 I'm using right now? Nope, won't fit.

In the books I see pictures of what look like just little plastic circles, but I haven't seen those in the stores around here... just the big, open ones.

I'd love some brilliant idea I can use just from household stuff that I already have on hand...

[Krisis]

I've used a paperclip and an elastic. But for the most part I just bought a little pack of stitch markers from Joann's and use those. They seem big, but they really aren't.

[Rhiannon Feimorgan]

I use a variety of old earrings miss mached, some small hoops but mostly hook style earrings. I use pliers to bend the hooks into a circle.

[tankgirl73]

Great ideas from both replies! I did some googling after posting, and found the idea of using safety pins. I tried that because I HAVE safety pins.

It worked fine, though as the 10-stitch-placemarkers while casting on they were a bit of the pain because they were big and in the way. But they did the trick. And now just the one as the end-of-round marker isn't in the way TOO much.

But an elastic -- we have little tiny elastics for DD's hair. They'd be much less obtrusive than the safety pin and they're just the right size!

And I've got lots of old earrings, I might see if I've got any that might be suitable.

While googling, I found one other awesome idea which I'm totally going to do. First I need to get some more jump rings, but of a larger size of course. You chain several together, however many there are of repeating rows in your pattern, and put a bead on one end.

Then when doing the first row of your pattern, you slip on the end of the chain (the end without the bead). When you get to the next row, you slip off that ring, and slip on the NEXT ring. So when you're on the 2nd row of the pattern, you can easily see you're on the second ring. And so on. When you reach the ring with the bead, you know you've reached the end of the pattern and start over again.

That just seems SO much more intuitive to me than click row counters (I'm always forgetting to advance it at the end of a row), more automatic too heh...

I got the idea from here: http://community.stretcher.com/forums/t/4222.aspx

[MeepyCat]

For small stuff, brace elastics are the way to go. For bigger, I use hair elastics, safety pins, or spare bits of contrasting yarn. I just can't see spending the money for commercial stitch markers.

[Dreamy]

I got these: http://www.knitpicks.com/accessories...s__D80591.html

They're different sizes and inexpensive, I really like them.

[sapphire_chan]

If you've got any dead bras, they've got rings in the straps that are perfect. You should be able to find a box of 1/4" commercial ones though.

[tayndrewsmama]

I really like the Clover locking stitch markers. They are nice for using in places that wouldn't normally be able to get the little round ones off as easy.

[kennedy444]

Originally Posted by Dreamy

I got these: http://www.knitpicks.com/accessories...s__D80591.html

They're different sizes and inexpensive, I really like them.

I get mine like these shown at local AC Moore.

[gingerstar]

I found these silver ones on Etsy, and couldn't resist!