Grab your knitting needles and come relax with me.
Friday, March 13, 2009
How to Use Stitch Markers Part 2
This is the continuation of our series on how to use stitch markers. Like I have said in the past, we have found that there are a lot of searches coming to our site using this term. So we decided that I would put out a little series on how to use them. In the first post we included some descriptions of the different kinds of stitch markers, you can find that post here: How to Use Stitch Markers.
Let's begin with lace stitch markers. These are usually very small, many people use jump rings, rubber bands, some us a bit of scratch yarn tied in a loop. We happen to sell some made with wire and glass beads in our shop. These are very small with little or no weight to them. This is because in a lace project you may need to use quite a few of them, and you don't want the project to get too heavy. Also these should not have any dangles coming off them. With fine lace if you have dangles they are likely to get tangled up in your lace, which will not be fun to remove.
OK now how to use them! Well there are many thoughts and process that people use to determine where they put their markers, so this will be mostly up to you, but here are a few of the main ideas. With lace markers it is especially useful to mark where the lace repeats itself, for instance if you are in a pattern that includes a small repeat then you would like to mark the beginning of each repeat. With lace projects they often repeat themselves over and over again, and until you have the pattern down pat, you may not remember where each one begins and ends. This will be your little reminder.
Also when you change your pattern, you will want to put a marker down to notify you of the change of pattern. For instance where an edging begins, this would be ideal for a different color or size marker to distinguish the change. In our Lace Stitch Markers, you can order in different colors for the jewel (as we call them) this could help with the pattern changes.
Another great time to use them is in the middle of a large pattern to mark something special. If you are free style knitting this can be helpful. Birdy once was knitting a randomized scarf where she would just randomly place a little mini cable, or a bead or a weird little pattern switch. This was a great place for her to use them to remind here of where she wanted to do this.
Lastly with the lace markers, if you are knitting some lacy thing in the round, you will definitely want at least on to mark the beginning of the round. This is very helpful since if you miss this you may not be knitting the correct row in your pattern. This again is useful for a differing color, or style. Using a Dual Use Stitch Marker would be a good idea for the row marker here.
Special note: In all these cases the stitch markers were uses on the needles between stitches not on the yarn itself.
If you have some ways that you like to use stitch markers in your lace projects, please include them in the comments section. I will be talking about more ways to use the other markers shortly, as well as ways to make your Dual Use Stitch Markers work for you in more than two ways!
Well I have been watching where our traffic comes from through searches, and one of the most interesting is the search string "how to use stitch markers". I found this interesting, since we sell stitch markers, but have never set up anything explaining how to use them. I think many knitters already know how to use them, but new knitters, or knitters who are just now moving up to more complex knitting designs are starting to use them. So I thought I might put a bit of a note in here. Today I will cover the First installment, Kinds of stitch markers and when they are best used.
There are several types of stitch markers out there. They are all used in similar methods but with slightly different methods in some cases, or applications. For instance we sell Lace Stitch Markers which are a bit smaller and no dangles to get tangled in your knitting. These work best when you have the need for many stitch markers on a project, since they will not weigh down your knitting. A very inexpensive method to do this, but not as pretty, is to use jump rings of different sizes to match your needles.
Next is the typical plastic or rubber stitch markers from companies like Boyle. These are usually just like plastic jump rings, though some are split so that you can remove them your needles or project if they accidentally get stitch in. They usually come in a mixed pack of different colors, this can come in handy later when I talk about how to use them.
Then there are your typical beaded stitch markers, usually made on either split rings or jump rings, these have been known to snag your yarn, which can be a bad thing if it's a thin and expensive yarn. Many makers of these do try and take the time to work with the rings and make sure they are smooth so they do not snag your yarn. A few makers will either use toggle clasp ends or wrapped wire to avoid the snagging bit.
Let's not forget about our crocheting friends. They have their own unique stitch markers, although some will use the same as a knitter. Theirs usually need to clip onto some stitches, in order for them to hold them while they come back to them. There are other reasons too, but we will get into that in the next segment. So these are usually made with either a lobster claw clasp, or are open on one end similar to a fish hook earring.
Last there are multipurpose stitch markers, our Dual Use Stitch Markers line fits into this category. They are designed with more than one purpose in mind, I have see many of these out there, many are meant to be used for knitting and crochet. I have seen some unique designs to help get achieve their multi-purpose goal. I will probably feature some of them, even though they compete against us, so that you can see what their thought process is. Our thought process was a knitting stitch marker that was easy to remove if it got stitch in. Could be used with crochet as well. Did not get snagged easily in the yarn, and was something that you would love to add to your knitting. In the process we created something that could also be worn as Jewelry (earrings). Now we are creating several designs and are expanding the line of Dual Use Notions. Remember: They're not just jewelry for you, they're for your knitting too!
Next time I will actually start the break down of how to use them. If we are lucky I might be able to persuade Birdy to take some pictures or a video of stitch markers at work.
