to maintain memory of the count by preventing accidental movement of the discs. In 1972, UK magazine Woman's Weekly gave away its own card variation of this, with the numbers on dials with rotary paper pointers to record rows, increases or decreases, and times. Like the MP Handy Guide it incorporated a small inch-ruler and needle gauge, but now added a tension gauge measure and centimetre ruler. In spring 2008 the UK magazine Simply Knitting no.39 gave away a green plastic version of the MP Handy Guide, without needle gauge or ruler and with a clarified version of the same instructions moulded onto the back: "Rows: move the markers when you have completed each row. Increase and decrease: keep count each time you need to increase or decrease stitches. Times: use the markers when you need to make more than one set of increases or decreases." This version illustrated the difficulty of mass-producing such a gadget cheaply: the inner card is easily displaced during assembly, thereby misplacing the numbers, and some of the sliders do not move easily. Counters made of card These include the World War II card counter, and the 1972 Woman's Weekly card counter, both mentioned above. The wartime counter was a pierced card glued to a flat backing card; the front card contained strips printed with numerals and with slider-indicators. The numerals represented rows, increase or decrease, and times, as in previous complex counters; it also had a needle gauge and five-inch measure. The reverse contained instructions for use, and the legend: "a handy help for the war-time knitter". The wartime counter was a version of the 1930s Bestway card counter. In the 1920s to 1930s, various card counters were produced in the UK, including the Little Dorrit counter, and the schoolgirl counter. From around 2006 Maik Remmers designed and manufactured in Germany a series of 3D card counters in the shape of skeins of wool, animals and abstract designs. These are folded and printed on back and front, with a pair of rotatable number discs sandwiched between the layers of card. The discs can be rotated to reveal numerals through two windows in the front layer of card. The outer surface of the card can be written-on with water-soluble ink, and the back surface of the counter contains a form where the knitter can fill in current row numbers. This is necessary as there is