Mark my words. Or… stitches.

One of my favourite ways of enhancing the knitting experience is to throw in a bunch of stitch markers. These little guys come in about a gazillion shapes and sizes (not to mention all the fun colours!), and are generally pretty inexpensive. And as if making my knitting more fun and frivolous isn’t enough, there’s also the fact that stitch markers are really rather useful. Sure, I can knit perfectly well without them, or use a piece of waste yarn or something… but it’s just not the same. I love carefully selecting which markers to use for a specific projects – it’s part of the enjoyment of planning a new project. Different types of markers serve different purposes, but I also enjoy picking markers in a colour that matches (or contrasts) the yarn I’m working with. It’s like jewellery for my WIPs!

If you’re new to stitch markers: Congratulations! You’re in for a treat. To get you started, let me give you a quick introduction to the main types and how to use them.

SOLID RING MARKERS

What’s the deal? This is the simplest kind of stitch marker – it’s just a little ring. Solid ring markers are placed on your knitting needle, before and/or after a stitch, to mark a place in your knitting. For example, your knitted piece may have a section in plain stocking stitch, and then a section in a lace pattern. Instead of having to pay close attention the whole time you’re knitting so you know when to change between the two different stitch patterns, you place stitch markers between the sections and simply work away until you reach a marker. At this point, you then slide the marker from the left needle to the right, and make whatever change the marker is indicating.

It can also be useful to place stitch markers between repeats of more involved stitch patterns, to make it easier to check that the stitch counts remain correct. And if you need to start a project by casting on hundreds of stitches, adding a stitch marker every 50 stitches or so makes it easier to keep track of how many stitches you’ve cast on.

My faves: The soft rubbery ones from Clover.

TRIANGULAR MARKERS

What’s the deal? Triangular stitch markers work in the same way as regular solid ring markers, but their shape makes it a little easier to get the right needle tip into the ring when you need to slip it. Oh, and they look really cool!

My faves: The Clover ones.

SPLIT RING MARKERS

What’s the deal? These are slightly more versatile than plain solid ring markers. They can normally be used in the same way as solid rings, but they can also be inserted (or ‘hooked’) through a stitch in your knitting. For example, used them in a cable-knitted WIP to mark the row where you’ve crossed your cables to make it easy-peasy to count the rows to the next crossing. Because the rings are open, you can insert them and remove them as you go.

Personally, I’m not so fond of split ring markers. Because I’m usually lugging my knitting around with me a lot, there’s the risk of them falling out. For more stationary knitters, they work just fine, though.

My faves:  The KnitPro split rings.

LOCKING STITCH MARKERS

What’s the deal? Locking stitch markers work like little padlocks, and are really versatile. Like split rings, they can be inserted through stitches in your knitting – and the locking mechanism means they won’t fall out. Which is great for those of us who subject our WIPs to a lot of carrying around and pulling out of bags and shoving back in… They can also be used for clipping knitted pieces together in preparation for sewing, especially if you get the larger sizes.

The jumbo ones work well as mini stitch holders, such as for holding the thumb stitches when making gloves.

When not in use, store your locking stitch markers in the open position – this helps them keep their shape.

My faves: The heart-shaped ones from Tulip! (And the jumbo-sized Clover ones.)

Finally… a little tip: I like to put a few ring markers onto a large locking stitch marker and attach it to my project bag, a belt loop or my bracelet. That way, I’m prepared for any unforeseen stitch marker emergencies – like those inevitable times when I drop a marker or two as I walk along the street…