Stitch marker and progress keeper are handy little tools, mighty, and more useful than you can imagine.
Currently, two projects are on my needles, and each has at least one stitch marker and progress keeper, and all are being used in different ways. Basically, stitch markers will help you mark your place on your knitting needle, while progress keepers will mark a place in your knitting.
Stitch Marker
A stitch marker is a knitting tool used to identify an important place in your knitting.
The most common are round stitch markers, but Iโve seen them in various shapes, and they come in a range of sizes to fit your knitting needles. With ring stitch markers, you have to work to that place in your knitting to move them.
One way stitch markers can help is when youโre knitting in the round to mark the beginning of your work. Or, if youโre adding edge stitches to your knitting, stitch markers can separate the pattern from the knitted border, mark pattern repeats, or changes in stitch patterns.
Maybe youโve cast on a lot of stitches, and they can help you keep count of your stitches.
Progress Keeper
The progress keepers are attached directly to the stitch, and you can use them to see, for example, how much you knit in a day. Or they could be used for shaping. If you need to decrease every nr. rows, then that stitch marker can help keep that point of reference instead of counting every row.
You can also use them to mark the right side (RS) or wrong side (WS) of your knitting or for magic loop projects instead of to slip a BOR marker. If youโre learning how to count rows in knitting, you can use stitch markers to help you.
Dropped a stitch? You can use a progress keeper to hold it in place until you can fix your knitting mistake.
Some progress keepers are similar to safety pins so that you can slip them over the knitting needle too.
Whatever you decide to use, stitch marker and progress keeper will guide you through even the toughest pattern.
Just be sure to keep them in a case or container. Also, since they are quite small and easily lost, you should keep plenty on hand. You never know when you may need more!