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]

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I feel like I haven’t shared many knitting machine patterns lately, probably because I haven’t been using my knitting machines much lately. (I finally made space for them to live on the bookshelf in my office, and now that they have a “place” it’s almost like I forgot they existed for a while.)

But I did recently make a little cat bed, that surely would work for a small dog, too.

This one uses two different sizes of knitting machine: a larger one (it could be any in the 40-48 needle range) and a 22 pin.

The larger machine is used in flat panel mode to make the bottom pillow like part of the bed, while the smaller machine makes a long tube that is used around the edges as the sort of walls of the cat bed.

For stuffing I used a bit of leftover quilt batting for the pillow, and some cut up old T-shirts for the tube.

You can use any worsted weight yarn you like (I used two colors of Big Twist Pound+, which comes in huge skeins that weigh more than a pound). Acrylic or cotton yarn is nice for washablity, but you’ll be cranking for a while so make sure you use a yarn your machine likes so it’s not too much of a struggle.

You can grab the pattern for this cat bed over at Our Daily Craft. I’m sorry to report the pictured is as close as a cat has gotten to it so far, but maybe your cats like to be cozy more than mine do?

If you’re looking for more options for cute handmade places for your cats and little dogs to rest, check out this roundup of knit pet beds. I still want to knit one by hand but the machine version was definitely a faster option (especially good since my cats are ungrateful).

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