How to Use Stitch Markers and Make Your Own

For the longest time I didn’t really use stitch markers in my knitting. I guess I would use one at the end of the round if I couldn’t easily see where the tail was, but other than that I didn’t put these little things to good use.

Over the years I have learned there are a lot of great reasons to use stitch markers, especially when you have to do something regularly in a pattern at the same spot such as an increase, decrease, or change in the pattern (as for a cable or lace panel). Since top down raglan sweaters are one of my favorites, I have learned to love stitch markers and how much easier they make knitting life.

There are lots of great reasons to use stitch markers, including helping you count, reminding you to do something, or even holding on to a dropped stitch until you can get back to it to fix it.

I don’t, however, always have stitch markers handy when I need them. The other day I started a sweater worked on size 11 US needles and I found that not only could I not find the 10 stitch markers I needed for the project, most of the ones I could find wouldn’t fit on that large a needle.

So I grabbed some yarn and made a few of my own. If you want to know how to do it, check out the video below. (It’s not actually difficult, you just take a loop of yarn and make a strong knot). Choosing the right yarn for your marker is important, though, and I definitely didn’t do it with mine, but they have worked out OK and I don’t need them that long — raglans on a bulky sweater get done really fast!

How do you use stitch markers in your knitting? I’d love to hear about it.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NSIPiRbwDg]

For the past few years I’ve taken part in a Christmas in July blog hop that encourages people to get a jump on their making for holiday gifts.

I love to use yarn I already have for these projects in the hope that people will consider what they already have that they can use to make projects for themselves or to give as gifts.

This year it was a couple of knit baskets made using partial balls of yarn left in my stash from other projects.

They use the same basic pattern but the first one is made with two colors of bulky yarn, and the second used two strands of worsted weight yarn held together, which made the gauge about the same, but I cast on fewer stitches to make a smaller version.

The bottom of the basket is square, though you can make them rectangular if you’d rather. Then I just knit up the sides in rounds until I was about to run out of yarn. This gave both baskets rather short sides — maybe more like a tray than a basket — but you can keep knitting as long as you like to make the sides of your basket as tall as you want.

They’re worked in seed stitch, which keeps the edges from curling and adds a nice texture to the baskets.

Of course this also allows you to use even more odd balls from your stash. I’d love to make a big one someday combining lots of different yarn. I mean, I’d probably use it to store more yarn, but that’s a fine thing to do.

As it is, these little trays are great for sitting on your desk or bedside table to hold little things that always seem to appear there. I like to use one to hold the supplies for whatever project I’m working on, things like little scissors, my tape measure, a crochet hook, etc.

And they would make good gifts on their own or as a container to hold some other goodies if you like.

You can find the free pattern for these stash busting baskets over at Our Daily Craft.

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