Stitch Markers

June 15th, 2007

I don’t have stitch markers, I have aluminum maille rings. Corey bought some steel maille rings a while back to start some chain armor for SCA (he’s slowly not plodding along). When he did I asked him to buy some aluminum rings for making things (mostly maille jewelry). When I started knitting I adopted some of these rings for stitch markers, and they have worked great but for one thing: the ends are butted, not connected to eachother. This means that my yarn gets caught in the split, especially when I’m working with finer lace yarns. I had an idea to find some beads that would fit perfectly to the diameter of the wire that makes up the rings. I’ve been meaning to do this for a loong long time, but I just never took the time to buy the beads.

You’ve probably guessed it; I recently bought the perfect beads. I still have a bunch to finish, but the process is so easy.

1. Open the ring, put the bead on the ring, close the ring.
2. Get your super fast drying super well sticking glue. Put a little tiny dot on the split in the ring.
3. Slide the bead over the dot of glue, and quickly move your fingers away (don’t want them getting stuck to the glue!).
4. Done!

I have hundreds of these aluminum rings, but I only plan on making enough stitch markers for what I need (maybe 50?). Who knows what I’ll do with the rest of these rings, as I haven’t shown signs of making jewelry yet!

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Knitting Notions

November 21st, 2006

I don’t have a fancy knitting bag with all sorts of handy pockets and sections to travel with me. I have an inherited simple tapestry knitting bag, that has really served me well so far. It feels almost as if I could fit anything in it, like a Mary Poppins endless bag. It’s small enough to fit in my backpack, yet I’ve been able to fit 3-4 small projects at any one time. The only problem I’ve had with this, is keeping track of little things. I like to have a sewing tape measure, tapestry needles, spare row/stitch counter, and other small things with me. Just recently I started a new project that requires lots of stitch markers, so those need to go with me too.

While I was cleaning out the living room the other day, I found a tin from some Christmas chocolates that looked like it would work perfectly to fit these little notions in. It turns out it works great! If I ever get one of those little more-portable-than-scissors yarn cutters, I can fit that in there too. Now if only it would fit index cards, and I could put my abbreviated patterns in there too!

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