In the post on my new storage boxes, the small windowed slip tins holding my various types of stitch markers are available on the Internet from multiple companies in multiple sizes, colors, without windows, etc. (In that small size, I had to buy a minimum of twenty-four, so if you go that route, see if some of your fellow crafters would be willing to split a box.) I was inspired to get them after I purchased the set of 100 rainbow light-bulb-shaped locking stitch markers from Stunning String Studio, which came in just such a cute little tin (they’re in the lower right corner of the small tin).

I know lots of knitters don’t like on-needle markers. Perhaps they knit much faster than I do? Or they just don’t like to fiddle. I use them because I’m easily distracted and have a great deal of trouble counting (when counting happens to be necessary). I like the comfort of knowing I’m on track if the project is anything other than plain old stockinette. Even then, I use coil-less pins to count my increases and decreases, as you can see in a pic of the Big Guy’s sock in progress.

I used to use plastic circular split rings exclusively, but when I was working on my Alpine Meadows shawl, there were yarnovers at the edges of the stitch repeat, and they kept hopping over my ring markers. Not good. So I substituted some of my large silver coil-less pins, and no more migrating yos. Even though I was making that shawl on size 3/3.25mm needles, the loop end of the markers was still not quite big enough to slide smoothly along the needle tips without a little help. So I switched to larger solid ring markers, which were bigger around than the yos.

But another thing I liked about the circular split ring markers was that they were in different colors. I knit sweaters in the round pretty much exclusively, and I always use red as the BOR marker (telling me to stop and write down the round number I just finished) and yellow as midround, if one is needed. For projects like the Triple Braid sweater, I pick a unique color to put before each different stitch pattern around, so whenever I hit, say, a green marker, what follows is a 6-stitch cable, while I might use pink before the main triple braid. I even use colored pencil or marker to draw in a thickish line right on my chart, so that WIP and chart correspond.

Somehow I found Stunning String Studio’s rainbow-colored light-bulb markers. These beauties really do look like an incandescent light bulb, and they’re openable. The former means that they’ll slide easily along all but the largest needles or interchangeable needle tips, and the latter means that if when I have to move them because of my counting issues, I can move them right now, instead of waiting till I work my way to them. The extra length means they’re big enough to prevent yos from crossing stitch-repeat borders, and they’re in plenty of colors, for however many a project might need.