Simple items used as knitting supplies

[knovice]

Okay, sometimes I'm cheap. I mean, not when I'm buying yarn... I'll spend almost anything on really good yarn. And needles. I've got myself a healthy Lantern Moon addiction to supplement the whole Knit Picks Options thang...

But sometimes I see knitting notions on the shelves at the LYS store and realize that they're disturbingly similar to other, cheaper supplies that can be got at the drugstore or Target or similar...

So here are some of my finds:

-Teeny-tiny rubber bands that are made to hold tiny sections of hair for braiding or whatnot make great stitch markers and are also useful for holding sets of straight needles or dpns together, either when not in use or during a project (wrapped around the tips so the stitches don't slide off).

-Also in the hair aisle: You can buy mini-sized hair clips in packs of a whole bunch for cheap and use them to hold your WIP together for stitching. They come in lots of sizes, depending on your yarn thickness.

-Foam-backed posterboard is great for blocking on ($4-5 each). You can cover it in towels if you're blocking really wet stuff, and it's easy to score measuring lines into if you want that. I have four of them, which, set together, make a large enough blocking space for even an afghan. Then they slide behind the bookshelf or whatever for easy storage.

-snack-size ziplocks for holding groups of notions (stitch markers, tapestry needles, what-have-you) in my bigger knitting notions bag -- which is one of those free-gift makeup bags from somewhere.

So... anyone else found inexpensive things that work well as knitting notions? Do share!