knitting

I have another new gadget, and I love this one, too. It’s an electronic counter, and before you say, ‘what on earth would you need that for?’ I’ll tell you. In lots of patterns, you not only have to count rows to follow the pattern, you have to count sets of rows to finish the piece. You know, the instructions say, “repeat the last 12 rows” 20 times to complete the pattern. Now, you can put a counter on your needle, and count the 12 rows every time, and add another counter to count how many times you’ve repeated the 12 rows, but that’s kind of a mess on your needle, especially if you’re working on a piece of lace. The counters can get in your way and mess up the gauge of your stitches, too.

The electronic counter hangs around your neck, so it won’t get in the way of your knitting. It also has three different ways to count, so you can count rows, and then count repeats of the rows, and even more repeats within the pattern, if you need to.

It has a large, easy-to-read digital display, and it stays on all the time, so it won’t lose your count if you put your knitting down and don’t touch it for a few days. The buttons are easy to push, and it has an audible “beep” so you know you’ve added or subtracted a row (yes, it subtracts, too). The battery is supposed to last for at least a year (like a watch), I’ll keep you posted on that.

If there’s anything wrong with this counter, it’s that the display doesn’t have a light for night use, although I haven’t had any problems seeing it at night. The buttons are easy to push, and I’ve found that if I forget to take it off, and wear it around the house, I may press a button by mistake and throw off my count. Other than that, it’s a really handy gadget, and I may never use the manual stitch counters that hang off my needle again!

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