Stitch Markers

After seeing some of the pretty stitch markers other knitters have made, my little plastic rings purchased at JoAnn's didn't seem so nice. So I decided to make myself something cooler. My first effort involved getting out my beads. They turned out fine and were very nice to use on my almost-finished socks.

Then I made the mistake of looking at some of the sets for sale on eBay. There were all kinds of neat charms and elaborate beads and even photos. So I went to Michael's and browsed in the jewelry department. I still wanted something simple because I'd rather be spending my time on my socks. I was able to find 4 sets of charms that were small and very lightweight. With the addition of some jump rings, I now have a very large assortment of stitch markers for very little money and very little effort.

The biggest problem facing me on the next pair of socks will be choosing which markers to use!

Sassy Stripes Jaywalker

Another pair of knitted socks has been finished. I used the pattern for Jaywalkers from Knitty. With finer yarn there would be twice as many zigzags, but even so this shows off the striping of the yarn nicely.

Fingerless Mitts

This pattern is from Isela's book, Loom Knitting Primer. It is an extremely easy and quick pattern to do, and the mitts are soft and warm.

Sassy Stripes 4

Another pair of socks are done. The legs are knitted in the Basic Chevron pattern from the book I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks. (Since buying the book, I've found several free chevron-type sock patterns on the web.)I bought this yarn for a friend. She thought it was too dull so I made them to fit my wider foot. One look was all it took to change her mind about them!

Loomed Hotpads

I wanted to loom a hotpad. Not a potholder, but the pad you put hot dishes on. I was thinking about something similar to the crocheted origami hotpad but I wanted to make it on a Knifty Knitter.

On my first attempt, I didn't cast on enough stitches. After knitting a flat panel square, I removed it from the loom and crocheted around the edges until it was 12 inches on each side. Then I folded all four corners to the center and stitched the edges together. Here's how it looks on each side.













On the second attempt, I cast on 24 stitches and knit until it was 12 inches on each side. This time I did one row of single crochet around it just to make the seaming easier. Then I finished it the same way as before.














Both hotpads are soft and thick.