After seeing many beautiful pictures of beaded stitch markers and having an elevated view of my own craftiness, I decided to try making some myself. You see, I have a whole bunch of beads along with head pins, and know how to make a
wrapped loop; I don't really make jewelry for myself (
maybe I should start you think?!) and I love finding uses for items I already have stashed. The first attempt involved purchasing (
gasp!) toggle clasps and using those for my rings. The beauty of this method is that the clasps already have a place to attach the beads to and the toggle itself is a seamless circle so nothing will catch on the yarn. They came out great, and I immediately put them onto several projects already in progress. Here is where I learned the failings with this method, they work just great for lace work
(currently being used for my liesel scarf and working quite well) and would probably be okay with heavier weights of yarn but for my
hell-sweater they created a laddering problem so I had to abandon them in favor of the plain rubber ones I have from Clover. So back to the craft store to peruse for more supplies.
small toggle clasp markers
On my next trip to the craft store I purchased some 12mm split rings to try, (
you know, like miniature key rings) not sure how well they will work but I'll give them a shot. I need to make a handful at least as I will be starting a
clapotis scarf soon and I understand it needs at least ten markers. After making some of these and casting on my clapotis I learned that the jump rings are definitely lighter in weight than the toggle clasps, which is very desirable when using nine markers on a straight needle. I also used lighter beads for these and I find that is helpful also with the weight issue, I had on seven of my toggle clasp markers and I could definitely tell the difference when I switched between the two.
