Stitch markers

Thursday 11th February 2021

Tags: Techniques, Knit

For knitters and crocheters, stitch markers can be a real marmite subject.

We are going to confess right here and now that we love, love, love them. Not only are they very pretty but they are so useful as well.  We collect little tins of them like magpies.

Stitch markers come in all shapes and sizes, as you can see, from hearts to little lightbulbs and some even look like bracelet charms. Most will fall in to two categories – either a hoop or one with a catch that you can unfasten.

We use the ones with a catch for crochet projects, where we need to hold a stitch or to mark a particular part of a project.

The hoop ones are fantastic for showing where you are on a row especially if your pattern has a number of repeats. This Fair Isle hat has six pattern repeats in the round.  By adding a stitch marker at the end of each repeat we can easily see where we are, and if you make a mistake, you only have to go back one pattern repeat.

For lace knitting, they are even more useful.  With this type of project it’s easy to lose your place in the pattern.  We have used stitch markers in this feather and fan stitch to mark where each pattern repeat ends.  Just like with Fair Isle we can keep track of our work and avoid having to unpick a whole row.

We know some of you find them awkward to move over your needles or the charm ones can get caught on finer yarns but with so many different types of stitch marker you will be able to find one for each project.  And when you do, we’re sure you will be as hooked as we are on one of the most useful tools in your project bag.