How to Use Stitch Markers and Make Your Own

February 16, 2023 by Sarah White

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]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?

Knit a Stunning Bestiary Scarf

I don’t even know what to say about this amazing knitting pattern. The Bestiary Scarf from Monstra & Mirabilia is so full of details it’s a little intimidating to talk about.

It features, as the designer describes it, an “artistic encyclopaedia of Western mythical creatures.”

The pattern includes a dragon, harpy, Medusa, chimaera, centauress, phoneix, kraken, mermaid, sew serpent, cyclops, wyvern, Pegasus, amphiptere and amphibaena. (It’s a good thing there’s a photo of the proejct with everything labelled because I definitely didn’t know the names for everything.) It’s also designed like a landscape, with water and land creatures toward the bottom ends and sky creatures toward the top.

The dragon is at the center and is worked sideways so it will show as upright when you wear it.

The scarf is worked in double knitting, so the colorwork appears in the opposite colors on the other side.

It’s worked in light fingering weight yarn (on size 0 US or 2mm knitting needles) and the colorwork is shown in charts. The pattern also includes some video tutorials and written instructions to help you along. The designer says the pattern is for intermediate knitters, and “advanced beginners may succeed with patience and the help of the video tutorials.”

When I was an advanced beginner this kind of a pattern would have brought me to tears, but if you love a challenge, and a project that you’ll wear and get tons of astonished reactions every time, this is the project for you. And of course if you have a few double knitting projects under your belt and are comfortable reading charts, this project shouldn’t be hard, but that doesn’t mean it’s fast. But lots of great things take time, and that’s never stopped us before, right?

You can get a copy of this pattern from Monstra & Mirabilia on Ravelry.

[Photo: Monstra & Mirabilia ]