Knitting Update

I'm supposed to be taking a break from real knitting, but here's what's doing:

Ito Maki Pincushions

Here's a first look at the Ito Maki Pincushion that I'm designing. I used one of those English-Japanese dictionaries to find the Japanese Word for yarn and "Ito" came up, so my appologies if it is in fact the wrong word. This is the Tuna Roll version. I have a vegetable roll with brown rice on the needles right now and I'm also planning a Salmon Roll and California Roll version as well. It's knit using Carron Simply Soft acrylic yarn.


Quick and Dirty Stich and Row Markers



I broke out the pliers and beads the other day to make myself some row and stitch markers. Usually, I just use cut up straws (an idea I got from DIY Network's Knitty Gritty), but my last black straw is almost gone and I like to have a couple of different colors to mark the begining and midway-point on my knitting. I also hate using a straw segment to mark a row and then have to cut it when I'm finished.

I didn't have any head pins, so I just made little spirals to hold the beads in place. I really like the way the row markers came out - it's a long piece of wire bent in half and then formed into to the hook with the ends of the wire bent into spirals. I flirted with making ones that looked more like fish-hooks, but I was afraid the wire would snag my yarn. It was alot of fun making them and my friend K gave me some really pretty beads to make some more.