Knitting with Household Items - Paper Clips

Hello all!

    If you're reading my blog you probably know that I started knitting when I was in middle school.  I taught myself to knit from a book.  When I started all I had was that book one set of straight needles and a couple skeins of yarn.  As a middle schooler I did not have access to easy transportation to get to a craft store. As I worked up to patterns that required things like stitch markers, stitch holders, cable needles, etc I figured out how to make use of what I had in my house to fill those needs.  I know I'm probably not the only knitter that has faced or will face this conundrum.  So to make it a little easier for others I want to share with you some of the things that I learned along the way as I slowly built up my stash of yarn and other knitting supplies.
 
Today I'm going to talk about stitch markers.  The first time I ran into a pattern that called for stitch markers I wasn't sure what they were.  Now back when I was in middle school the internet wasn't anywhere near as ubiquitous as it was today.  So I pulled out my copy of "I Can't Believe I'm Knitting" and looked at the page where it explained common knitting supplies.  and it had a picture of something like this.

     I knew that I probably wouldn't make it somewhere that sold these for a long time.  So I sat down and tried to think of what I could use instead.  As I dug through our junk drawer looking for a suitable alternative I found a magnet covered in paper clips.  I had my answer!!  Since I was using smaller needles for that project a small paper clip easily slid over my needle and solved my problem.  I was able to finish my project.
 

    When I did eventually catch a ride to Joann's, and bought my actual stitch markers I was so excited! I started a project that required them shortly thereafter.  However I discovered that these little circles left something to be desired in comparison to my paperclips.   As a beginner I did not have the experience to be able to handle the thick stitch markers, and so wherever I put a stitch marker there would be a ridge than ran for however long the marker was used.  (shown below on the left) whereas a paper clip left no trace on the finished product (shown below on the right).

* I want to put a disclaimer here. I no longer have this problem so making this demo proved a little challenging, but it was a real problem when I was just starting out.  For beginners I always recommend using paper clips to start.

There are more advantages to using paperclips than avoiding this dent.  I don't know about you, but I tend to lose my stitch markers fairly often.  They're just so small.  So let's look at replacement costs for paper clips vs stitch markers.  A quick internet search shows us the following:

Joanns
A package of 20 - 30 plain stitch markers runs from $1.99 - $4.99*

Amazon
 A box of 450 Jumbo Rainbow Paperclips $2.99*

Office Max
A box of 100 silver jumbo paper clips $ 1.39 *
A box of 100 standard paper clips $ 1.79*

* note prices were accurate as of 4/27/2016  

Over a few years the cost of traditional stitch markers adds up.  Especially if you're prone to losing the infuriatingly little things.  Whereas buying even one box of the paperclips would be enough to keep me in business for a long time.

  Now I know what some of you are thinking.  That may work if you are using small needles, but what about when you're using large needles?

To answer that let me first point out that there are different sizes of paper clips so to some extent this can be solved by using jumbo paperclips.  If the jumbo paper clips are not sufficient you can always bend the paper clips into whatever shape you need them to be.  :)

So what do you think?  If you ever misplace your stitch markers try paperclips, and let me know how they work out for you.