More Stitch Marker Love

In progress Woodfords by Elizabeth Doherty

It's Valentine's Day week and that must be the reason I keep thinking of more ways I love my stitch markers.  Two more to add to the list:  matching and marking changes.

When working a sweater bottom up, I will always work my sleeves (or the two fronts of a cardigan) simultaneously.  This ensures that my increases or decreases will be the same on both sleeves.  It also sidesteps the dreaded second-sleeve-syndrome.  But, this plan flies out the window when working top down or modularly (my new favorite construction method).  I suppose that you could pick up all your stitches around both armholes and work them simultaneously using magic loop, but to me that just seems like a one way trip to crazy town.

Stitch markers to the rescue.  When working my first sleeve, I put a stitch marker at every decrease.  When I get to the second sleeve decreases, I remove the stitch marker from the completed sleeve and move it over to the working sleeve.  Perfect match.

On the striped sleeve you might notice that my line of markers indicating decreases changes color halfway down.  In this instance it is not because I ran out of the green stitch markers.  (Although that might frequently be the explanation.)  I realized that I was not decreasing fast enough, and so changed the rate from every eight rows to every six.  The salmon pink markers denote the faster increases.

How do you love your stitch markers?