Let's Talk Tools

 

Today is day five six of the 4th annual Knitting and Crochet Blogging week, and we're here to talk about tools.

Hmmm ... I have not really thought about tools all that much since, well, ever. I suppose, if I'm completely honest, I did think about them in 2009 after I took a tunisian crochet class at Stitches West. I came home, wanted to make something, but didn't have a proper tunisian crochet hook, so I fashioned one from a crochet hook, a knitting needle, and tape. And then I made a whole blanket with it. Desire can be a powerful thing.

Flash forward to now, and a test knit I recently completed. The shawl is constructed bottom-up, and I needed to do some major counting right off the bat, so I gathered up all of my stitch markers. It was the first time I had laid them all out - I wanted to see how many I had. Fifty-two was the final count. I was 8 shy of what I needed, but I made due.

So, I worked my next row, placing my stitch markers as I went. And then I got extremely familiar with all of my stitch markers (most of which I had never used).  I definitely found my favorites in pretty quick order.

Believe it or not, my absolute favorites out of the menagerie were the cheap plastic split-ring markers. They're lightweight, easily removable, and didn't get caught in my knitting. Not the most aesthetically pleasing of the bunch, but really functional.

My second choice was the wire stitch markers just above the bottom left-hand silver "I love my cat" markers. They are incredibly lightweight, can actually fit a wide range of knitting needle sizes, and also didn't get caught in my knitting. The only downside was the lack of a split ring. I note that they are handmade and were part of a great swap package.

Then came the "I love my cat" markers, the two simple sterling rings with blue (right below the cats) and the gold coffee bean markers. The first two are aesthetically pleasing and didn't interfere with my knitting, and the coffee beans, while long and swingy, are very smooth - nothing to catch on one's yarn.

Finally, the middle set of cats, the silver rings with the gray and yellow balls and the leaves at the lower right did not work well. All of them kept catching on my yarn, and one of then actually broke mid-row. Not good at all. They have been permanently removed.

Who'd of thunk I could be so picky about stitch markers? What are your favorite markers and from where did you get them?