Fixing a common knitting mistake...later!

As I was spending some time this morning knitting along on the lace shawl which I don't think is going to be ready for Christmas this year, I discovered that I had neglected to work a yarn-over in one of the repeat sections of the design. Instead of picking the stitches all the way back to that one missed stitch, I simply marked the spot with one of my handy dandy little locking stitch markers and continued on with my knitting.



The orange stitch marker is the one holding the spot where the yarn-over should be and the yarn which should be used to make the yarn-over.

I continued knitting to the end of the row, turned my work and started purling back across the row. When I got to the orange stitch marker, I made sure I knew exactly how to pick up the strand of yarn to put it onto my needle so it would become the yarn-over. Then I set up my tripod and camera, set the timer so I could take still shots with no hands, and then proceeded to photograph each step of recovering the missed yarn-over. It really is quite simple, and knowing this trick can save you from having to pick back lots of delicate stitches.

So where are those helpful photographs, you may be asking? Right on my camera card where they will remain until I delete them. You see, as I was preparing them for this post, I realized that I had put the stitch onto my left needle backwards! So I guess I'll have to re-create the missed yarn-over, and re-photograph its retrieval, and this time do it correctly!

Now I find myself wondering how I worked the purl stitch with the backwards yarn-over. I'll have to pay extra careful attention when I work the next row to see if I can pick up on where that stitch was worked, and see if it looks any different for it being done on a backwards yarn-over.

Live and learn...and wait for another chance to share this handy tip!

Happy Stitching!

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My Own Beaded Stitch Markers

Recently in a post about Beaded Stitch Markers I talked about this really cool website called Wormspit.com. If you haven't checked it out, you should, especially if you ever use silk for any purpose. It will give you a whole new appreciation for this beautiful natural fiber.

But silk isn't the purpose of this post. It's the Beaded Stitch Markers that Michael shows how to make on his site. I made some myself and thought you might like to see them.


This is what I used to make mine:

I purchased two packages of toggle clasps from my local craft store. Each package has six of the round pieces and six of the straight pieces. The round pieces are what I used for the stitch markers. Any ideas for what to do with the straight pieces would be welcome!


I also used some head pins that I had in my beading box, leftover from past projects.



I got out some beads I had leftover from previous projects, and I also purchased two strings of beads from the craft store. I wasn't sure what I'd be in the mood to use, so this is what I had to choose from when I sat down to make my stitch markers.



I also dug out my good old faithful Rosary making pliers, shown on the right, and got the needle nose pliers from the toolbox in the basement.



Then I started playing with beads and this is what I came up with. I liked the combination of the Cool Multi Colored Glass Luster Beads, along with some smaller clear glass beads and some even smaller round silver beads.



I lined up the beads on the head pins and used my pliers to make a loop in the top, putting it through the hole in the round half of the toggle clasp, and this is what I got. My loop in the top of the head pin is not quite as neat as Michael's, but I think my head pins were much shorter than the pins he was using so I had very little left to hold when making the loop.


Still, I thought they came out quite nicely. I love the different shaped beads...



...and the colors in this set that I used.



They seem to have a good weight to them, and the toggle clasp used has a hole big enough for at least up to a size 9 needle.



Altogether it took me about an hour to make all twelve of these stitch markers. Now I just have to find a knitting project so I can actually use them!

Do you have some little dressed up tool or accessory that you love to use? Share it!

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Beaded Stitch Markers

The little colored plastic circles that you can buy at your local craft store are great for marking your stitches while knitting, but isn't it nice to have some little something that is not only practical but beautiful as well? I sure think so.


I ran across a reference to an interesting website while I was browsing my favorite embroidery website. Try not to be too disgusted with the name, Wormspit.com. I'm not kidding! See for yourself! It's a site about silkworms, silkmoths and silk.

Mary Corbet at NeedleNThread was referencing it regarding beetle wings to use as embelishments on embroidery, but I found something for us knitters that the Wormspit guy, Michael, was making -- Beautiful Beaded Stitch Markers.

They look easy enough to make, provided you have the right tools. And I thought they were so attractive to look at besides being very functional. Don't you think they would make knitting even more of a pleasure? I sure do!

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