Back to knitting

The box that holds my stitch markers has gone missing. This isn't an uncommon event. I tend to drop things hither and yon in my house and with the number of projects I have going on (Clapotis, Rogue sweater, socks, lace sample, Modern Quilt Wrap, felted knitting bag) it's more likely that the missing tools are with a project or lying on a table somewhere. Because I have a bad case of startitis going on right now, my tools are scattered about the house. Cleaning up for Knitcamp West uncovered several tools that had gone missing--scissors, cable needles, dpn sets--but not the box holding my two dozen or so stitch markers.

Yesterday was my first day of not having to clean or go anywhere. It was a day I could call my own. The only thing I had to do was send off Mr Pink, so once that was done I was free to do as I pleased. I had a few things I needed to get for my Halloween costume I'm wearing to my friend Ruth's Halloween party and I wanted to visit with my friends at Unraveled Yarns. So with what tools I had I packed up the Modern Quilt Wrap and headed out.

The nip in the morning air warned me that I needed to make gloves for the upcoming winter. The gloves I have are okay but not quite satisfactory for walking. I have fairly large hands and many womens' gloves are too small to fit well. I've been on the lookout for a pattern for gloves and was going to make a pair from the Selbuvotter book, but nothing really sparked me into action. When I got to my LYS, I noticed Lisa had in some lovely fall yarns and I was smitten. I only blame yarn intoxication for taking up skeins of Louet Gems in eggplant and the IK Holiday Knits to do the Twisted Stitch Gauntlets. The thought of a small project with a different stitch method really appealed to me and the eggplant color was irresistable.

I swatched the yarn to make sure I could make the gauntlets and was pleased by not only how my seat of the pants purchase came out on gauge but also how beautiful the fabric came out. The Gems had me in its fibery hooks. I cast on, then I had to do a set up row for the pattern. It was there that I ran into trouble. The pattern doesn't start with an even rhythm section of stitches like ribbing. It had knits and purls in a sequence that required stitch markers. Being that it was getting late in the evening and I was tired from my day it didn't occur to me until I had tinked back a couple of times and looked at the chart that yes, I needed stitch markers. The problem was where the heck were they?

I looked in project bags. Nothing. I looked in my tool drawers and bags. Nothing. Not even enough loose ones to cobble together to keep me from going nuts. I wanted to work on my glove but without stitch markers to guide me with this dark colored yarn I was going to be cursing the air blue. I did find a box of vinyl covered paper clips that worked for the time being but they're awkward on the small needles and project size.

I then remembered reading someone's blog on how they made stitch markers out of vinyl covered wire and beads. I've seen folks make beaded stitch markers with jump rings but I've found jump rings very annoying, especially with laceweight yarn, because no matter how hard I would try to close it the gap on the ring is never perfectly closed or smooth so fibers snag. The vinyl wire would work better. The great thing was I had the materials for making my own markers: beads, wire, crimps. But it would have to wait until the morning. There was no way I was going to try to thread a tiny crimp onto wire at 11 pm.

So this morning this is what I came up with. I'll have to test drive them to see if the ends aren't snaggy. I haven't done any extensive beading for some time so this will be a great way to use up some of the items I have. And later on I can make more for prezzies.