Row Counters, Stich Markers, and Pace Counters

I am really getting into this knitting. I am a little disappointed I put it off for literally decades thinking that crochet was way harder because of the sheer number of stitches to remember. I am thinking now that knitting may be harder because you can make the same patterns but you have to do it in a way that ONLY incorporates two stitches.

I have had my son since last night. He stayed home from school today due to upper GI problems. Beings I am new at knitting and don't think I can yet stop in the middle of a complicated row and be able to pick up where I left off, I spent today making stuff for knitting.

I wanted some stitch markers. I've seen my Mom's and Sister's and, well... they are girly. I wanted something MANLY! My solution was chain mail. (Making chain mail is another one of my hobbies. I used to tease my mom saying she could only knit fibers where I knit steel lol) I have some chrome links from one of my projects, so they are now stitch markers. how much more manly can you get than chromed steel?

I also wanted an easier way of keeping track of my rows. I am terrible with remembering numbers. I remembered the pace counters we used in the army and made me one of those. I added a hundreds grouping onto mine so I can now keep count up to 599 rows. There are instructions all over the web to make it. The first one that pops up on Google is: http://www.instructables.com/id/Army-Ranger-Beads/. I made mine from memory, but glancing at the above listed site, they know what it is, how it is used, and how to make one.

This is what I did today.