knittingissofun

2022: Wk of 11/20-26; Hubby Sweater and Holiday Stuff

November 27, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sweater Knitting

Not a lot of knitting this week with the Thanksgiving holiday and prepping the house for the Christmas holidays. We will fly back from Florida for a couple of days at Christmas but won’t have time to decorate as our 3 days home are already scheduled up. I also baked a lot of cookies to have for when we return and to drop off some as we visit our daughter and son on the drive down to Florida. Probably won’t get a lot of knitting done this coming week either as we spend 20 hours in the car driving to Florida with me doing 80% of the driving.

ANOTHER HUBBY SWEATER UPDATE

I’m still plugging along on hubby’s sweater. I did realize that I had too many stitches in the sleeves and too few in the front/back sections. So I’ve modified some rows to do extra sleeve decreases and not do front/back decreases. I’ve spread the modified rows evenly over the length of the yoke so I’m hoping the slight jogs in the raglan will look like a “design element”. I know hubby is going to complain that the V is too deep (grumble, grumble) so I’ve bought him a long sleeved t-shirt for Christmas to wear under it and thus “fill in” the V. There still is a ribbed collar to add to the V which I hope will also help fill it in some. Suspect he won’t be asking for another sweater which is fine with me. Takes too long to knit a 52″ chest anyway.

NEW KNITTER??

I’m thrilled that my youngest son’s girlfriend has decided to take up knitting. She is doing fantastic. I’m so impressed with the consistency of her stitches!! I hope she sticks with it. She does tend to hop from new hobby to new hobby. She is currently knitting a blanket with some chunky yarn she already had. Poor thing was using straight needles so the stitches were soooo bunched up on the needle. Luckily I found a very inexpensive set of Knitters Pride acrylic interchangable needles with cords at Hobby Lobby. It’s the same set I bought 5 years ago when I first learned to use circular needles. I still use the needles! So I’ve given them to her as an early Christmas gift.

That’s if for this week. Today we load up the car. I’ve packed a bunch of knitting in addition to the projects I left last year and are waiting for me. Hopefully everything fits in the car!!

Hope you have a wonderful advent season.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts. YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 11/13-19; Hubby Sweater Update, Holiday Traditions

November 20, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sweater Knitting, Yarn, Yarn Advent Calendars

HUBBY SWEATER

Making progress on Hubby’s sweater. The sleeves have been joined to the body. Still can’t understand the pattern instructions so I’ll plan to kitchener the sleeve underarm to the body. I’m still hoping to have it finished before we leave for Florida in a week. It’s not too warm of a sweater since it’s a cotton/silk blend (Berroco Summer Silk) so he may be able to wear it on those occasional cool mornings in February. If it doesn’t fit, I’ve already warned him it goes to the long term time out corner as I’m not going to delay working on other projects to reknit this sweater that I now hate. (Fortunately due to knitting stripes and breaking the yarn after every stripe, lengthening the sleeves won’t be hard – just remove the cuff, add stripes and kitchener back onto the sleeve).

A GIRL AND HER WOOL

I’m especially glad I ended up ordering an advent calendar from A Girl And Her Wool this year. She announced this week that after almost 4 years, she is ending her yarn dying and thus her shop. I loved her concept of letting you order exactly how much yarn you wanted versus being forced to buy 100 gr skeins. I could order 60 gr of MC and 10 gr of contrast color to make a pair of socks and not have a lot of yarn leftover. Her business was doing well and that was part of the problem, it was taking over her life as she also had a fulltime job. I’m glad that she walks away knowing she can start-up and run a successful online business.

HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!

In the US, Thanksgiving is an opportunity to celebrate friends and family with food so it’s my favorite holiday. Looking forward to turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie with my in-town kids and father. Then it’s Christmas cookie baking on Friday followed by putting up the Christmas decorations on Saturday.

Hope you have a wonderful week.

2022: Wk of 11/6-12; Hubby Sweater Update and 2023 Planning

November 13, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sweater Knitting

HUBBY’S SWEATER

Making progress on the sleeves but this has been a slower go than I expected. The progress keeper shows how much I got done this week. I think the shorter rows resulting in more frequent changing to a new stripe keeps me from wanting to knit it. Plus the fear that I’ve guessed wrong on how many stripes the sleeves need. I have one more set of stripes to knit and then it will be time to combine the sleeves with the body to begin making the v-neck. I’m forcing myself to be monogamous as I know if I start something more “fun”, his sweater will get abandoned again.

2023 PLANNING – Year of the Sweater/Tee

Sorry, I’m a planner. My brother likes to tease me when I try to nail him down for a family gathering months in advance. So it’s no surprise that I’ve already started working on my 2023 knitting plan. In my defense, leaving for Florida a month before the end of the year kinda requires I have some idea what I want to knit in the first few months of my knitting year.

2022 was the year of the sock with a goal of knitting a pair (or cowl/shrug) every month. 2023 is going to be the year of the tee/sweater. I already left 3 tee projects and a pair of socks at the condo in Florida so realistically I don’t need to bring much more. I am bringing the yarn advent calendars I bought so I think I’ll bring my cream (main color) yarn for a possible sweater. Plus 2 sock yarns. I’m sure I’ll have WIPs to bring as well as I know my colorwork “winter” sock will not get finished by the end of the month. This should give me some choices as that is definitely more knitting than I can do in 4 months. I hope to finish hubby’s sweater and have a Love Note cast-on before we leave. I do love using Google sheets for my knitting plan so that I can access it from my laptop, Kindle, and even my phone.

FAMILY

Thanksgiving isn’t for another week and a half here in the US but I got an early Thanksgiving by having family gatherings with both sides of the family this weekend. Friday night was “kinda” a more formal dinner. Hubby made Beef Bourgoine and a flourless chocolate cake for dessert for 16 people. I placed cards at each seat with a question such as “what was your favorite memory from the past year” for some fun and getting to know each other a little differently. (Bought years ago from one of those Facebook ads)

Saturday we went to downtown Cincinnati with my youngest 2 kids and their spouse/significant other for lunch at a brewery in a converted church and to check out the murals on all the downtown buildings. It was very cold but fun to ride the streetcar for a quick tour of downtown.

Today we head up to my dad’s house to have a pizza dinner with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece. It will be good to check in with them to see how they are doing. My niece’s significant other headed back to Austria yesterday so they may be especially feeling down. It will be good to have some distraction.

IT’S SNOWING!!!❄

How crazy is our weather.😵😜 Thursday I was clearing leaves from the driveway in shorts, yesterday we got 2+” of snow!!😳 We aren’t supposed to get above 40F/4C all week! Winter is here!

Hope you have a wonderful week.

2022: Wk of 10/30 – 11/5; Hubby Sweater Update and another Charlie Harper Bag

November 6, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Project Bags, Sweater Knitting

HUBBY’S SWEATER UPDATE

Finished the body and now I’m knitting the sleeves. I forgot with bottom up that the sleeves are knit separately. I’ve never knit the cuffs first. Since I also knit socks toe up, this whole starting with ribbing from the cast-on was wonky for me. But it’s done and now it’s off to the races. Even knitting two sleeves at a time, each row is only a third of the number of stitches that the body had. This will definitely be my last bottom up sweater. I hate that I have to guess what stripe to start with to achieve the desired length. Yes I’ve measured the target garment and thus in theory the sleeve should be 17″ long. But I know only too well that estimated doesn’t equal target. Ripping out the cuff and adding a stripe doesn’t really work since the stockinette stitches would be in the wrong direction. Fingers crossed I’ve estimated correctly.

FINAL PHOTO – CHRISTMAS STOCKING

This time I mean it, last photo. I made an i-cord for the stocking hanger and duplicate stitched my granddaughter’s name. May I say how much I HATE duplicate stitch. Not a labor of love, just labor!! Used leftover bed sheet material from my Covid masking making days for the stocking lining. But it’s done and winging it’s way to Indiana. My stepdaughter has already requested stockings for her and her hubby. Something to put on next year’s knitting plan.

PROJECT BAG #2

Since I had to get out my sewing machine to make the lining for the Christmas stocking, I decided to sew the second project bag out of the Charlie Harper cardinal fabric I had. It was already cut and the interface fused to the fabric so it was a very quick sewing project. I do love these tiny bags which are perfect for a pair of socks. I may add a long strap to one bag so that I can wear it for my Florida “walking while knitting”. I already have nylon bags for this but the fabric is just so cute! Cardinals are year round birds here in Ohio. They give our dreary winters a spark of color.

NOVEMBER HAPPENINGS

I’m excited that my daughter and son-in-law will be back in Cincinnati this coming week to attend one of her high school friend’s wedding. A much happier reason for a hometown visit. It’s so weird that I’m seeing her 3 times in 4 weeks as we will stop for a day’s rest on our drive to Florida the end of the month. Normally I only get to see her twice a year; on our drive down to Florida and our drive back to Ohio. This year it’s 5 visits!! Not complaining. We will have a preholiday get together with my husband’s side Friday night and with my side on Sunday.

Hope your November is off to a wonderful start. The leaves have fallen off the trees here in Ohio. Everything looks like winter outside which fits with our coming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Weird this year is that even most of the oak trees dropped their leaves. Maybe the drought fall we had?? We are having very unusually warm temperatures (after an unusually cold October). The air temperature feels like early summer. I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt! We cut the grass one last time. Hubby is enjoying this warm weather before heading south.

2022: Wk of 10/23 – 29; Christmas Stocking

October 30, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Baby Knitting, Christmas Knitting, Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sweater Knitting

Not a lot to share this week. Preparing for my nephew’s funeral used up a lot of my knitting time even though my role was simply to provide for the luncheon following the internment. It was wonderful to have my daughter and son-in-law stay with us for the weekend.

CHRISTMAS STOCKING

My granddaughter’s Christmas stocking got most of the knitting this week. I got the heel done and I’m working on the toe. I’ve created a chart so that I can double knit her name down the leg. I should have it done by later today. Then I need to sew a lining for it.

HUBBY’S SWEATER

My hubby is glad that I’ll be getting back to knitting his sweater. I had him try it on and of course, after knitting the next smaller size, now the sweater is a bit tight. I’ll have to block it out. Hubby isn’t as thin as he thinks he is. 🙂 Two more stripes and it will be time to separate for the sleeves. I should have some good progress to show next week.

BABY SWEATER

You may recall that I knit a baby sweater last March as a test knit. Turned out it was too big for my granddaughter then but it fits her well now. Here’s a picture of her in the sweater.

2022: Wk of 10/16 – 22; Christmas Stocking Cast-on and Hubby’s Sweater Update

October 23, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn Advent Calendars

CHRISTMAS STOCKING CASTON

I did end up casting on a Christmas stocking for my granddaughter. So the winter colorwork sock goes on hold until I complete the stocking. I decided to go basic with the Christmas stocking. Kits are expensive and I didn’t want to buy more yarn. I had a skein of Christmas striped sock yarn in my stash. I bought 2 skeins last year and had already knit up one skein into a pair of Christmas socks for me. The yarn is kind of “wooly” so I didn’t want to make another pair of socks. It’s perfect for the Christmas socking. I’m using some stash yarn to make the white cuff. “Unfortunately” since it’s knit with sock yarn, I am not knitting it with a large needle to give my hands a break from the smallish (US 4) needles I’m also using on hubby’s sweater. I hope to add my granddaughter’s name with duplicate stitching down the leg. This should be fun and fast. I will have to line the sock as it’s not going to be strong enough fabric on it’s own.

HUBBY’S SWEATER

With the focus on the Christmas stocking, Hubby’s sweater is getting less love so not a lot of progress. Poor hubby, he always falls to the back of priorities. Good thing I love the yarn. I’ll be lucky if I get it done by Thanksgiving. More like Christmas. The progress keeper shows the progress I’ve made this week.

ADVENT CALENDAR

The first advent calendar has arrived. The others should arrive next month. This one is the Emma’s Yarn calendar. It will make a nice Christmas decoration. Apparently you just pick random ones to open versus being in a numbered order. It will be packed away to open in Florida. I’m thinking of making the Party Cardy with the mini skeins. The pink bag in the middle is a Christmas Day goody added by the yarn store that sold the calendar.

I also receive my autumn mini set that I will set aside for a Christmas in July ’23 opening.

COVID?? FLU??

Sadly I didn’t get to see my granddaughter and stepdaughter yesterday as she had to cancel the birthday party. My granddaughter has been running a fever for the past 5 days and my stepdaughter also came down with a fever, sore throat and body aches. Not sure if we will be able to squeeze in a visit in November before we head to Florida as my stepdaughter needs surgery for a “frozen shoulder”. I’ll have to mail the baby blanket for my grandson’s baby.

DEATH VISITS

Just when I thought things were bad enough with the loss of my childhood friend, “God” sends my family a sucker punch. My brother called me Wednesday evening with words I thought I’d never hear, “Derek is dead.”. Derek is my brother’s 35 year old son. It’s not clear exactly what happened other than he fell on his front steps and hit his head hard. He had a heart attack (?) either before or after the fall. I pray my brother and sister-in-law can survive the death of their son. I cannot image surviving the death of my child. So give your loved ones a special hug, call, or text this week.

2022: Wk of 10/9-15; Sweater Update, Sock Cast-on, Advent Box

October 16, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Knit, Knitting, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting, Yarn Advent Calendars

AH HA!!!

I have been super frustrated with my gauge not matching my sweater. Even checking my gauge once I’ve started knitting has resulted in sweaters still being too big. What the heck?! Well this week I measured the gauge of my husband’s sweater. I measured it while the garment was still on the needles but far enough below that I could ensure the fabric was smoothed out. According the gauge I’d measured, the sweater would be much too small. But since I’d already had him try on the sweater with a barber cord and it swam on him, I knew this couldn’t be true. So I transferred the sweater to the barber cord and rechecked gauge. Indeed a HUGE difference. While still on the needle cord, the gauge was 5.1″ for 30 stitches for a garment circumference of 43″. On the barber cord, the gauge was 5.8″ for 30 stitches for a garment circumference of 49″!!!! Apparently this means I need to transfer swatches to a barber cord since leaving them on the needle cord apparently doesn’t result in an accurate gauge for me.

I’m making good progress on hubby’s sweater. He sure needs it as this fall has been unusually cool. I’m enjoying getting to wear my sweaters before we head to Florida. Sadly it’s also been extremely dry so we’ve had to buy water for our cistern. We did find the leak and fortunately it was both an erratic toilet and a leaky outside faucet, not a broken water line.

COLORWORK SOCK

I was getting bored with all stockinette knitting on hubby’s sweater. While I wanted to cast-on a second Ranunculus sweater, I decided to cast-on a colorwork sock. This way I’m also alternating knitting styles – Continental for the sweater and English for the sock. This is supposed to be good for decreasing stress on my wrists. Now ergonomically speaking, I’m just missing a project with larger needles. Stay tuned as I just realized I should knit a Christmas stocking for my granddaughter.

Similar to the Christmas colorwork sock I knit last year, I’m knitting a “winter” colorwork sock. I’m hoping the sock could be worn not just in December but in January if the stripes aren’t blatant Christmas. The stripes will be snowflakes, pine trees, hot chocolate mugs, etc. I plan to gift them to my daughter.

ADVENT WINDOW BOX

I was hoping to find a nice “box” to store one of my advent calendars in as I unveil the minis over the month of Dec. I found a nice windowed box with 10 compartments. I used balsa wood to make 24 compartments and stained the outside wood. Sadly the compartments are definitely too small for 20g mini skeins. One advent calendar I bought is only 10g minis. It will be tight but I’m hoping they might fit if I wind the minis into a ball. Here’s a picture with some of my leftover yarns as examples. Oh well, it wasn’t expensive and I’m sure I’ll figure out something to do with the box for advent even if it’s just to fill the compartments with chocolates. 😉

SAD NOTE/HAPPY NOTE

On a sad note, I’ll be attending the funeral of a childhood friend this week. Her death wasn’t unexpected as she had ovarian cancer and it had gotten A LOT worse these past weeks. This one is upsetting me more than I expected. Probably because it hits too close to home. We had been meeting monthly for lunch these past 10 years. I will miss her.

On a happy note, the day after the funeral I will be traveling to Indiana for the weekend to celebrate my granddaughter’s first birthday. I will enjoy spending time with my stepdaughter, her hubby, and my granddaughter. Just the pick me up that I’ll need.

I can’t believe this year is winding down already!! The holidays are almost upon us. I hope you are enjoying this fall season and this week of crafting brings you joy.

2022: Wk of 10/2-8; Baby Blanket FO!! and Sweater Redo

October 9, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Christmas Knitting, Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sweater Knitting, Yarn Advent Calendars

BABY BLANKET

Whew! It’s done. Lordy I hope there is a pause in baby blankets as they are not my favorite thing to knit. Good thing is that I’ve used up almost all my acrylic yarn that my daughter-in-all has gifted me over several Christmases.

HUBBY’S SWEATER

Finishing the baby blanket means I’m focusing now on my hubby’s sweater. I had him try it on after completing the hem and knitting 25 rows of the body. Despite making a gauge swatch, it’s way too big. So I ripped back to the hem and removed the added stitches the pattern called for. This results in going down one size. Plus I am going down a needle size. I will check the gauge again after I knit a few inches and see if any additional modifications are needed. Also see the cute Halloween progress keepers/BOR marker I got this week. I also got some Christmas ones.

I’m probably going to end up casting on a pair of socks or another Ranunculus this coming week just so I have something to alternate between versus endless rows of stockinette. He wants a plain sweater which makes it easier to knit but also a bit boring. The striping does help alleviate the boredom.

OOPS I DID IT AGAIN

I tried to resist since I have already ordered 3 advent calendars but I just couldn’t resist my friend’s “autumn” mini set. Definitely going to have to make a lot of striped tops/sweaters. Maybe I’ll save this set for a Christmas in July so as to knit a tee for autumn. I’ll have forgotten the colors by then! Happy to say her yarn dying business is going well and is now her fulltime job.

CHRISTMAS IN THE AIR?

I seem to recall seeing someone make ornaments using up leftover bits of yarn. So I’ve been collecting the yarn I snip off after weaving in ends or if I truly have so little yarn left from a project that I’m not going to use it in another project. I would like my small Christmas tree that I have in the Florida condo to be knitting related. So yesterday I bought these tiny (1.4″/3.5cm) clear plastic ornaments and I’m stuffing them with the colorful bits of yarn. I’m planning to make a simple garland out of the leftover yarns from the baby blankets as well.

NON KNITTING STUFF

I got the most recent Covid booster Thursday. WOW. I’ve never had a reaction to Covid shots before. This one left my arm feeling like a professional boxer hit my arm. Then I had the worst headache I can remember in a very long time. Fortunately within 24 hours I was back to “normal”

It is almost the peak of autumn colors. Certainly by next week. Then it will start “raining” leaves. 😦 This is absolutely my favorite time of year. Sunny but cool enough to wear sweaters and wool socks. Bright blue skies. It’s weather and scenery like this that makes it impossible for me to consider moving to Florida year round. Oh and that broken rail at the bottom of the stairs…. a reminder of the incompetent concrete contractor we hired last summer.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting.

2022: Wk of 9/25 – 10/1; Autumn Socks FO & Charlie Harper Project Bag

October 2, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sock Knitting

SEPTEMBER REVIEW

I just missed my stitch goal of knitting 1800 stitches per day in September although I’m still meeting that goal on a yearly basis. I am not surprised since I had 3 travel days where I wasn’t able to knit much. Turns out the months with week long wedding celebrations resulted in missing my stitches knit goal. I’m okay with that. 🙂 I started 3 projects and finished one although I’m tempted to count my autumn socks since they were so close to finished.

ALWAYS SOMETHING!!!

This has been a rough week. After returning from our Outer Banks/Delaware trip, we discovered we have a leak somewhere in our water system. We collect rain water from our roof which is stored in a cistern under our front yarn. So far we have confirmed the leak isn’t a sink/toilet. We are trying to determine if the cistern has developed a leak or the pipe from the cistern to the house. I suspect the recent concrete work my husband insisted on has caused the crack and leak.😖 Then the driveway repair this past week has been slow and resulted in accidentally cutting our internet/cable so I’m currently sitting at Starbucks as I write this using the free wifi. I’m getting my steps in since it’s 1/3 mile to the street where we have to park our car.👟

Hurricane Ian did damage the roof of our oldest son’s home in North Port, FL. He also lost the fence at his home. I believe our grandson’s home in North Port has serious water damage. Fortunately our son’s home in Gainesville, FL was unaffected as was our daughter’s home in Charleston, SC when Ian came ashore a second time. We are very fortunate that the condo we have rented for this winter made it through without a scratch. Some of the trees got blown over in the condo complex but the complex seems to have survived the hurricane well.

AUTUMN SOCKS FO

Got my autumn socks off the needles in time to wear with my autumn cowl this fall!! It will be fun to wear these in support of the Cincinnati Bengals football team as well as fall in general. I think it is interesting how at 68 stitches the orange pooled while at 64 stitches the orange striped. So I have pooled orange on the foot and stripes on the leg. I like it that way.

Now I have to focus on finishing the baby blanket and get back to knitting my hubby’s sweater. Then I can start thinking about casting on another pair of socks. Maybe Christmas colorwork socks!?

CHARLIE HARPER PROJECT BAG

I did end up making a project bag with the Charlie Harper fabric. I LOVE IT!! It is quite small; perfect for a pair of socks, especially if using 9″ circulars and 50g or less yarn balls. It’s only 7″ wide at the top and 4″x3″ at the bottom. It’s about 9″ tall. I have enough to make a second sock size bag. Charlie Harper was a Cincinnati based American artist well known for his stylized animal illustrations. I picked up the soccer ball charm at Michaels to use as a zipper pull.

Hope you have a wonderful week of crafting. This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts. YOP started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. I’ve been knitting for six years.

2022: Wk of 9/18-24; Socks, Sweaters, and More Favorite Things

September 25, 2022 by knittingissofun, posted in Baby Knitting, Knit, Knitting, Knitting Plan, Sock Knitting, Sweater Knitting

HUBBY’S SWEATER UPDATE

I do love knitting with this cotton/silk Berrocco Summer Silk yarn. Just so soft! Since it’s all stockinette for 17″, it’s a nice mindless knit for TV watching now that the network series are starting their new seasons.

AUTUMN SOCKS

These socks are getting the majority of my attention since it’s already autumn. I want to wear them NOW! I think the fit is going to be okay. I’m making them a little shorter than normal to help pull in the extra width at the ball of my foot. I love this yarn too. (Seems to be a pattern). I’m ready to start the heels today. Orange and black are also the colors of our local football team so hopefully they will get to be worn into the playoffs.

BABY BLANKET UPDATE

My great grandson’s baby blanket got a little knitting attention and is going to need to get a lot more. I’ll be traveling back to Indiana in four weeks for my granddaughter’s first birthday so I need to have the blanket done by then. Hubby’s sweater will have to take a back seat until I can get the blanket finished.

FAVORITE THINGS – CHRISTMAS IDEAS??

A few weeks ago I posted how I like clear containers for all things knitting so that I can see what’s inside my “tin”, notions pouch, yarn “bin”, and even knitting tote bag. Another thing I like to help make knitting more enjoyable is “fun” stitch markers/progress keepers. These can range from cheap to somewhat expensive. Here’s some ideas to put on your Christmas list or as a gift to a knitter you know.

I love using my colorful o-rings that come in lots of sizes on Amazon. I bought small ones for my sock needles, medium sized for my Size 4-6 needle knits, and large ones for my Size 8 and up needle knits. These are available via Amazon. I like to place them every 10 stitches when I’m casting on and every 20 stitches while knitting. I like to use these on big projects where I use one color for the front stitches, a second color for the back stitches, a third color for the right sleeve, and a fourth color for the left sleeve. I also recently bought stitch markers from Katrinkles that literally say front, back, and sleeve for added clarity on what the heck I’m knitting at the moment.

I have numbered stitch markers from Twice Sheared Sheep that I also like to use while casting on or tracking my stitch count while managing increases or decreases. I love my M1R/M1L sweater stitch markers for top down sweaters although for my bottom-up sweater I’ll be using my SSK/K2T sheep stitch markers. These are both from an Etsy seller. Sadly I have found that the black printing wears off too fast if you don’t put a drop of clear nail polish on them to protect the printing.

Finally, it’s fun to have seasonal or just cute charms for progress keepers. I made these from charms and lobster clasps I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Etsy also has lots of cute progress keepers. I like to put a “fun” pair of stitch markers in the center of the top side of each sock and a square stitch marker in the center of the sole side of each sock especially when knitting 2 at a time socks. Helps me keep track of which sock is the “first” one and which side gets the heel.