Stitch marker frenzy

When I attended the Stitches Midwest convention last year, I met some ladies in a booth that asked me if I had any stitch markers to trade. I looked at their table, which had a large bowl of homemade stitch markers with adorable little rainbow charms attached.

I didn't have any markers to trade, but they let me have a rainbow pin anyway. (Thanks, ladies!) I told myself I'd make lots of markers to bring next year for trading.

On a whim, I checked out the beading section of my local JoAnn Superstore. They had adorable tassels...

And turquoise skulls...

And gorgeous ruby beads...

And matryoskha dolls...

And flamingos!!

I gave the matryoshkas, tassels, and flamingos to coworkers as gifts. Most of them are young and also new to crochet / knitting, so their stitch markers right now are paperclips. I thought I'd help them get a little more fancy.

The pins you see above are called bulb pins (which my JoAnn crew helped me identify). All you need to get started are beads, pins, rings, and pliers.