general design was similar in principle to the early I.X. Products version. It had the same precise engineering for control of friction, and central metal spring suitable for needles up to 3.5 mm. The basic Compact, however, had a central knurled grip-band, which made the gadget easier to hold and to turn quickly and precisely. The earlier version of the late 1950s to early 1960s had red numerals, and the later 1960s version had black numerals. The luxury version of the Compact was presented in a gift box, it was priced at a guinea and became a contemporary collector's item, tending to be little-used due to impracticality. The assemblage included a thin and delicate 6-inch – later 8-inch – tape measure in place of the grip band. On this luxury version the tape-measure assembly caused the centre of the gadget to rotate independently, making it difficult for adult fingers to grip the remaining part of the stable outer skin to turn the main assemblage for use as a row counter. Some of the counters in this range featured pearlised plastic outer skins in various pastel colours. Around the 1960s to 1970s Woman's Weekly magazine gave away a soft plastic on-needle knitting row counter of unusual but simple design. Two numbered blue-and-white barrels rotate independently around a central white spindle, which has a number-pointer at one end and a loop to thread onto a needle at the other end. The friction (to prevent the barrels rolling freely) is maintained by the tightness of the number-pointer and shortness of the spindle. In the 1980s the knitting accessories company Aero produced its own rotary on-needle counter which had a distinctive red inner barrel with thick knurled ends, and a grey outer skin. The red colour of the inner barrel meant that the numbers had to be printed in white, and were more easily visible than the small black printed numbers on earlier versions. Aero later produced a blue and white version of the same design, with the name Inox printed on it. In the 1990s Wrights Boyle and Prym began to produce a similar design with white inner barrels and coloured outer skin which continued to be sold in different sizes until at least 2010. In the 21st century until at least 2010, the manufacturers Pony, Whitecroft and Wrights each made a new version of the 1970s octagonal counter for sale in Europe,