CocoKnits Colored Open Stitch Markers

THE REVIEW

Visitors familiar with Knitting Companion know that I am in love with pretty much everything CocoKnits-related. I love the idea of the magnetic tray, their standard stitch markers are the first ones I grab for my projects, and the yarn snips are a dream when I weave in ends for most yarn weights. Everything about their system is typically done with high-quality.

So when my husband offered to buy me the Colored Open Stitch Markers, I was absolutely gleeful. I was excited to get these home and start using them on a project I already had in progress – the Braided Fog Vest.

INITIAL REACTIONS: These are made with the standard CocoKnits’ bright colors and they are generous in what they offer for the price: $9 gets you 60 stitch markers; ten in each of the six offered colors. They are light weight and skinny enough to use on a lace weight project, with a really fine point on the tip. That tip made me a bit nervous, but I thought it would be good when working with a really light-weight yarn.

THE TESTS:  I realized when I was doing my swatches for the Braided Fog Vest that I would need to be more careful than usual with tracking row counts for the cables. While I was using my Ablet Knitting Abacus, I realized that I really need to get used to counting rows because I caught myself forgetting to mark rows periodically. I pulled out my new open stitch markers and put it on the row that I was cabling, first in the stockinette section. The first thing I noticed is that the opening for the leg to go around theyarn is not very wide; I had to squish the yarn in order to get the stitch marker around it. Inevitably, I found the leg going through the worsted-weight yarn, splitting the plys rather than neatly going around the yarn. Removing the stitch marker led to similar issues. While the yarn was never seriously damaged, all yarn enthusiasts know that you want to avoid splitting plys (and especially not send any objects through your plys!) unless you are weaving in ends. It can create some damage, and that is ultimately what I found on my project. However, it wasn’t severe, and for the sake of this review, I continued to use them until I completed the project to see if they relaxed open or if the tip blunted at all. This is an area where the CocoKnits quality is well-earned; there was no blunting of the tips or relaxing of the opening; these markers performed the same at the end of the project as they did at the start.

I also tried them on some socks I was knitting as well, and found a very different experience with that yarn: with that thinner yarn, I had no issues with splitting the plys or yarn damage at all. With that, I would recommend only using them on lighter-weight yarns that have a fairly tight twist to them (and with no halo effects, like you might get with art yarns or mohair).

The next thing I noticed was the paint flaking off the stitch markers. According to the CocoKnits website, it seems I’m not the only person who has encountered this or has felt some frustration over it. At first, I noticed the paint flaking just around the tips of the markers. I was disappointed but generally understood, as that’s a high-friction area. Then I noticed that there was some paint missing around the top outer corner of a couple of the markers – that’s less understandable. Investigation on the CocoKnits website suggests that they’ve started to double-coat the markers with paint to minimize issues. While that may help, I will confess that I’m skeptical. If it had taken six months of consistent usage for the first coat of paint to flake, I might have a different opinion, but I saw paint flaking within two weeks or purchase.

Here’s an excerpt from their site: Please note that the opening stitch markers are painted, not nylon coated, in order to keep them delicate and to prevent them from leaving ladders in your knitting. With extended use the paint may begin to wear off giving them a rustic look, but enough paint should remain on the marker to distinguish each of the colors.

I don’t know about you, but when I buy colored stitch markers it’s because I want colors that will stand out, and I’m not interested in a “rustic look,” so my hope is that CocoKnits finds a better solution to the paint flaking solution. While these generally function well, I would use them on a sock weight (or lighter yarn).