Trade secrets

Blog friend, Mary (who's knitting a lovely summer shawl, btw) has been talking about tricks and quirks with knitting.

She mentioned the interlocking stitch markers that I sent her and that I use. You can see my red/green combo there at the toe of the the current sock.

I found this tip in "Knitting Tips and Trade Secrets". My library has the older version, but I see Taunton Books has expanded and re-released it.

I like to use these whenever I have to do something every other round - so it's perfect for gusset and toe decreases. For me red means STOP and do something like decrease and green means GO; keep on knitting around plain. I usually place it a couple of stitches in on the first needle (you magic loopers and 2 circs people work it out yourselves). When I get to the marker I flip it to the other color and do whatever I was reminded to do. If I have to put my knitting down mid-round or suddenly, when I come back to it later I know exactly what to do. Yes, I can get easily distracted.

Today I was in a waiting room knitting away on my sock when I discovered I was ready for toe decreases and my handy, dandy interlocking markers were not with me. Luckily there was a snippet of a different yarn leftover from another project so I knotted two interlocking loops and merrily proceeded. It wasn't quite as neat as the markers but certainly served the purpose.

The spiral-bound index card book is another handy thing for me. It has dividers for three sections. In one I have the yarn/yardage requirements for a few patterns that I like - in case I'm in a yarn shop and see the perfect yarn but can't remember how much is required. One section has a grid I made with my needle inventory (not up-to-date; must work on that!) and one section has some tips. You can see one right there. It's the Retro Rib Sock Toe.

The Retro Rib Socks were the first pair I made from a patterned pattern, i.e. the first non-generic plain rib sock. My beginner and basic pattern was Ann Norling's Adult Basic Socks which I think is a terrific pattern, particularly for beginners, but I found the toe on the Retro Rib pattern to be just a bit more refined and I loved how it fit and felt.

And why wouldn't I? Because just guess WHO designed the Retro Ribs. Yep. Evelyn A. Clark.

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and if YOU have a neat tip, pass it on in the comments.