Cracker Jack Prizes

When I was a kid I loved to get Cracker Jacks to get the surprise at the bottom of the box. It was a doubly hard wait to eat the caramel popcorn to get the prize because I had to pick out all the peanuts since I'm allergic to them. The prize would always be some cheap trinket but I didn't care. And it was always a race between my brother and I of who would get to the bottom first. He'd usually win (he didn't have peanuts he had to pick out) until I figured out I could turn the box upside down and get the prize right a way.

So I've always been intrigued by little prizes, notions, beads, etc. all my life. And knitting notions are the best. There are stitch markers and seaming pins and row counters. I have a whole zippered bag I knitted full of them.

 

Well, I once again fell for the prize when I bought the Spring 2008 issue of Simply Knitting which is a publication from England. They always include some free knitting related thing with each issue. I have their 2008 calendar hanging up in my kitchen.

 

This time though they have this unique row counter. It not only keeps track of rows knitted but also increases and decreases. No more writing it down or ticking off on patterns. I just have to use my new handy dandy pattern counter. It is kinda cheap. I think I will probably lose one of the sliders at some point, but for now I think it is a fun way to keep track of my knitting. And I didn't have to wait to get to the end of the magazine or guess what the prize would be. The pattern counter was stuck to the front of the magazine to entice me to buy it!

Oh, and there are a few cute patterns in the issue too!