Sunday Stitch – How to Make Your Own Row Counter

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I never seem to have a row counter when I need one. I buy them and about 23 minutes later they are gone. I’ve learned to stop buying them and just make my own.

beaded row counter for knitting

Franklin Habit, one of my favorite writers, can never find his tape measure. I can sympathize. He has a theory about multiple universes and ripples in the space/time continuum. Maybe. Or maybe they just get stolen by bad cats.

I’ve learned to make my own row counters with beads and a bit of string and that way I have a row counter when I want one.  Don’t get me wrong, I still loose them. I loose them all the time. But they are easy and fast to make so after I’ve lost track of what row I’m on for the seventeenth time, I stomp over to the bead stash and make myself a row counter. Then I’m happy… for awhile. By the next day Feline Overlord has stolen it it’s hanging out with Franklin’s tape measures.

I tend to use small beads, size 6/0, because I attach my row counters to my projects and I want them to be light weight. In the video I’m making one with larger beads so that you can see what I’m doing. You can can uses any size bead you like so long as the hole in the bead is big enough for the string to pass through it twice. 


Hope you like these as much as I do. If your generous (not like me) and can put down the knitting long enough to make more than one (not like me) then you’ll have great little gifts for all your friends at knit night. I bet they will love them.

If you liked this tutorial, check out our others on the Tips, Tricks and Videos page. You might find something else you like.

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"There is no failure. Only feedback." - Robert Allen

19 Comments on "Sunday Stitch – How to Make Your Own Row Counter"

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Kay Landreth
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I, too, have made a “habit” for everything “Franklin Habit”, just as I have for your blogs. A tip, from me, Using hi-lighting (repositional) yellow 1 row tape has proved a reliable means to keeping track of my knitting chart progress. I also save it between projects (whenever that might happen to occur) for the stickum holds up so well without damaging the chart or paper. I resize the charts on the scanner to fit the tape and am off and running (knitting, that is). I have had no problems remembered to move it from line to line during the… Read more »
knitsbyjenn
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Ah yes. I am a BIG FAN of highlighter tape. I carry it in my knit bag and have been known to slap some down on other people’s patterns. I agree its fantastic and LYSs should carry it.

But… the colorful tape doesn’t help me when I have to “knit the next 44 rows” or “repeat this section 9 times”. That’s when I’m reaching for my (lost) row counter. 🙂

Kay Landreth
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You aren’t alone with that one.

ceresandraste
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I have a clover row counter on a piece of Paracord. I am often found around town with this fashion accessory and everyone asks me what it is. I think the only reason I have yet to have lost it is because I wear it so much! (Also if I am knitting and lost in the woods it’s a seven strand paracord so I can tie up stuff and still have a necklace for my row counter!)

knitsbyjenn
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I think I bought one like that once. Then it escaped my custody and is now living wild and free somewhere in Austin.

Bekki Hill
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Funny, I’m very good at losing things, but I don’t lose row counters. Wonder why mine like to stay?

knitsbyjenn
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Who knows. maybe you are like me with cheap sunglasses. I can hold on to those forever. But the three times I bought expensive ones…. they disappeared within weeks!

Bekki Hill
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Definitely! Thinking about my row counters they’re definitely not expensive and were probably my mothers – best not go out buy any expensive new ones.

quinn
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Thank you so much! I have never had any luck with using a row counter, because 1) I sometimes forget to turn/click/thump the counter after each row, and 1) I lose the counter after the first time I try to use one. Having the counter right on the needle sounds like a perfect solution! And maybe I won’t lose this one, because it can go right into the mint tin with all my unmatched stitch markers? Which is another story…

knitsbyjenn
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Sounds like me, lmao. I too have an Altiod mint tin for my assortment of stitch markers.

quinn
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Also, in the post above you can see I have a basic problem with counting of any kind!

knitsbyjenn
Guest

Typos! Typos don’t count as mistakes around here because I usually make one in every sentence.

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