An Interesting Item

About a week ago one of the members of the Petitpoint group that I belong to posted a photo of a counting device that she had found.  It was such an interesting idea that I decided to make my own.  It is made up of either two or three needles that were secured on a long piece of thread and held together with some cute beads.  I decided to make mine with 3 needles because I wanted the first needle to stay in the first line of squares on my gauze.  In this way I could tell where I started counting.

To make it I used some number 28 tapestry needles then cut some floss double the finished length that I wished.  I used 3 strands of each color and threaded them through each of the 3 needles until the needles were at the halfway point of the thread. Once I had all 3 needles threaded, I then folded the threads in half, tied them all together with a small knot and threaded them through some beads. Once I had the beads threaded, I secured them with another knot.
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I use it to count 10 squares at a time and "leap-frog" the 2 needles across the gauze, first to determine the count of the gauze if I am unsure, and second to count across to see where the second corner of my rug will be. In the past I had to keep re-counting to make sure I had the right number of stitches so I think this will make my life easier.  I can also use it to count the stitches I have done already or mark the correct number of stitches that I need to make before changing to another color in a row that I am stitching.