Knitting Melodi.....those little round circles.....??

M

Martinhouse

Deceased
I saw those little round colored plastic things on some of your work and it looks like they are spacing or count markers. I wonder what they are called? The only place in my town that might have such a thing would be Hobby Lobby and some of the people who work there are rather clueless, so it might be easier if I can ask for exactly the right thing when I call to see if they have any,

No hurry on an answer. I haven't been all the way to town in almost 7 months and I may try to find someone to pick them up for me if they do have them..

Thanks,

Carol
 
packyderms_wife

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
Martinhouse said:
I saw those little round colored plastic things on some of your work and it looks like they are spacing or count markers. I wonder what they are called? The only place in my town that might have such a thing would be Hobby Lobby and some of the people who work there are rather clueless, so it might be easier if I can ask for exactly the right thing when I call to see if they have any,

No hurry on an answer. I haven't been all the way to town in almost 7 months and I may try to find someone to pick them up for me if they do have them..

Thanks,

Carol
Click to expand...

They're stitch markers.


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www.amazon.com
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
PW, thanks. Stitch markers or counters.

Question. How would one attach those solid ones?

Right now I'm using cable stitch pins, and those picks that came with the old brush roller type hair curlers roughly fifty years ago. Sometimes I just use big safety pins. I like to put one of those every ten rows when I'm knitting something really long. Much easier to count rows at a glance.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Sure, curtain rings will work, especially if they aren't *too* big. I once used twist-ties from the kitchen which I just fashioned into rings and twisted firmly enough so they woukd hold their shape.

Summerthyme
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
I only used the solid ones slipped over the knitting needle to maintain stitch counts, especially when doing cables. They were slipped off and onto the needles with each row, not attached to the fabric.

But I'm barely a neophyte hand knitter... I've probably made half a dozen sweaters and several hat's, plus baby booties... it's just not something that ever gets easy for me. When Melodi gets online, she will be able to answer any question you have.

Summerthyme
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
Straws work for finer needles. Just cut into tiny narrow rings. Not my favorite, but other people like it.
I frequently just use a loop of lightweight yarn. DMC embroidery thread works too. If you knit in the tails as you go, you can release the loops later, and just let the markers hang. They remain in place for reference, but aren't in the way, needing to be transferred every row/round.
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
I think I understand it now. But if I wanted those rings for tiny needles, I'd be more inclined to cut up something like aquarium hose for the rings. Less likely to fuzz up the yarn than a cut soda straw.

Right now I might use markers because I'm knitting something all in one piece which therefore doesn't have an underarm seam. I was getting tired of counting from the edge so I got out those cable pins. They are three inchers and sort of clunky, but I'm far enough above them now that they aren't bothering me any more. Actually, I think a mid-sized safety pin would do best for what I want.

Oh, well. Maybe it's just the old dog-new tricks thing, and I'm certainly an old dog. Plus I really don't intend to go into WM or Hobby Lobby at all. Bad enough I have to go to a nursery to get my bedding plants this Saturday.

Thanks, everyone!
 
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Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Stitch markers - I prefer the plastic "safety pins" when I can get them because I can just unhook them if I need to move them or if yarn gets caught in them.

But I also like the round ones for certain projects and Curtin holders will work for some sizes of needles.

When we first moved here they were impossible to find, so I started ordering them from the US and over-time they have become popular over here - first sock knitting came into fashion followed eventually by the sweaters-in-the-round which are not traditional here but are becoming more popular.

Traditional Aran Knitting is mostly done flat (except for some hats, socks, or mittens) first because round needles just were not a "thing" and because the thick fabrics with many cables get pretty heavy on circular needles, flat ones let you knit pieces and put them together.

You can (and I have) in a pinch make stitch markers out of tiny circles of knotted yarn, preferably a color you are not using and thicker or thiner than your work.

These don't work as well for "blind" knitting which I like to do at least with simply Knit stitches in the round (KKKKK) but a friend's Mom used to use different stitch markers to knit CABLE Sweaters and she used different markers she could feel and could knit in the dark in movie theaters!

I don't go that far, but I can knit the body of a simple sweater in the round while reading over TB2K, socks the stitches are just too tiny to make that work.
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
Thanks, Melodi. Curtain rings do come in lots of sizes, though, and if I ever dare to go to Hobby Lobby, I'll look for them. But I wonder if I couldn't just crochet some embroidery thread very tightly and tie it into rings? I get tiny O-rings at Ace
Hardware for tightening the hinges of my glasses, but they are black only, And now that I think of it, why couldn't we use bright shiny washers for these rings? Washers come in all sizes and it would be kind of fun to get a little box with compartments and put together a nice set of a few sizes of rings. Or just keep each size stored on a safety pin.
 
J

Jacki

Senior Member
Anything that fits on the needles will work. I often use different colors to help me keep track of where I am. For example I use green for the start of a project, and red for the end. If there are a lot of repeats, I mark each repeat. Since I sometimes have over thousand stitches on the needles, placing a marker every ten or rwenty stitches helps me find errors like missed yarn overs or dropped stitches.

Jacki
 
M

Martinhouse

Deceased
Actually, I've never used stitch markers before. I do mark every tenth row I've knitted, if I'm not making stripes. So far I've always used the big safety pins and I should probably just stick with those since that's what I'm used to using. Plus, I never do anything fancy so there's no need to mark where to change stitches.
 
F

Faroe

Un-spun
Put the sweater project away for awhile since I didn't want to begin the whole thing again (nor figure out were the math went wrong). At this point, I'll need another cone, and that is not in this month's budget.

Have been working instead on a shawl (Mountain Meadow Wool, Sport, in three shades of natural grey). The spinnery is in Wyoming and buys the wool from American ranches. Since MMW hasn't made a project of dumping my e-mail with virtue signalling lefty posts, they get my business over another place I had previously really liked, but got sick of hearing from. I'll probably have to order a 60" cable to finish it. Can't cram nearly as many stitches on a cable loaded with Sport wt as Fingering or lace wt. The spongy garter stitch won't need blocking when it eventually comes off the needles (4 more skeins to go)...yay! I hate blocking.

This basic shawl is the sort of knitting I like best - some detail at the center spine and edges, but overall, mostly mindless. Good for YouTube catching up (been watching the 411 guy and HowToHunt's channel on Sasquatch videos). Sigh - the dream of being a highly skilled "technical" knitter is probably NOT in the cards, I just don't ever put the necessary focus on that. Anyway, have a large bag of Icelandic wool in assorted colors, and probably won't ever get around to a lopi style yoke sweater (I hate that they are not knit to fit, but expected to just stretch to fit). That yarn would make a lovely knitted blanket, and as long as the pattern keeps pearling to a min., I don't mind endless rows.

ETA: My apologies, Martinhouse! I thought I was posting on the basic Autumn stitching thread. ...a bit misplaced. As for markers on this project, I am using Fleegle's tiny colored aluminum rings. They are smooth and soldered, so they never catch even on the finest cobweb (Fleegle is known for her supported spinning videos, and her elaborate beaded shawls. you can find her rings on Etsy's Gossamer Webs. I'm not affiliated with her, just a customer who is in awe of her multiple talents.)
 
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M

Martinhouse

Deceased
Faroe, no apologies necessary. I love reading about anything you experienced knitters care to post, and anywhere you post it.

I'll never knit more than shawl wraps, slippers, hats and scarves, etc. I do have to admit, though that my first attempt at a sweater turned out beautiful. I just adjusted for a different weight yarn and changed some vertical patterns because I don't know how to do cable stitch and then copied a sweater that my mom made for me many, many years ago. I can't wear the sweater now because the double thickness of the collar presses against the back of my neck in a way that makes me dizzy and nauseous. The fault of my Lyme arthritis, not the sweater. But it did turn out perfect and I'm very proud of it. I don't think I could concentrate enough these days to do such a thing again. I did make myself six pairs of long john bottoms with #8 needles and 4 ply yarn from Walmart. I was tired of being cold all the time and they keep me nice and warm. I just flattened out a pair of Hanes bottoms and did some measuring and figured out what needed to be done and the ones I made turned out just like I needed them to. They are all outrageous stripes which made it really easy keep track and make both sides come out exactly the same.

I'll never be able to do anything fancy, but utility is really all I need. I did figure out in my head when I first started the first sweater, how I could make a pocket that didn't have to be sewn on like a patch. It didn't seem to impress anyone but myself, but I'm still really proud of it and I did the pockets the same way on all four sweaters that I made.
 
Melodi

Melodi

Disaster Cat
Just a note, I've used just normal safety pins in a pinch - you can dangle a tiny bit of colored thread off them if you need to have different "colors" of the marker.

I find the metal pins to be a bit awkward and sometimes they cut into the yarn a bit (and the plastic ones don't), I find that the curtain rings tend to break but I still have a bunch of them from the local yarn shop lady had cancer and came to an SCA event to sell things off - we all bought a lot of them, and there are still some floating around.

They make them out of colored yarn, seems to be the most common "historical" or low-tech method and it does work - you just can't feel them easily which means sometimes I miss one.

I like to do fancy yoke sweaters sometimes with one Large Design repeat (running wolves, horses, Celtic Interlace, Norwegian snowflakes, etc) and I find those MUCH easier to do with stitch markers that tell me where my 25 stitch repeat pattern is and/or the back shoulder (or front of a steel) is easy, but having a different (or double) markers for the start of each pattern repeat section.
 
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