Pencil Sketch; Knitting Tip No.1

There has not been much knitting going on recently, except that Pencil Sketch is now finished. To my satisfaction, this lovely cami washes well and dries quickly.

Very random picots (BOn, picot; n = 1, 2, 3,...) decorate the neckline, and the sleeve openings are trimmed with plain stockinette stitches. To reduce curling, I bound them off in K1,P1 ribbing.
The yarn used for trimming is Adrienne Vittadini Celia, a woven silk tape purchased from one of my LYSs, and this very pale blue compliments the tones and the mood of the cami. And it fits...



I can see myself in it for the whole summer!

No.1 How do you count your rows? Except for using a row counter?

When the yarn is smooth and the stitch definition is clear, no problem.

When knitting with novelty yarns, I turn the piece over and count the purl bumps.

Now my favorite method: count the shaping stitches.

It goes something like this: say I am knitting a sweater(bottom up). After the ribbing, I work a rows of plain stockinette stitches. Then I start shaping as follows: decrease 1 st on each side of the piece every b rows c times. The K2tog and SSK stitches are easy to find, and I always rely on them to see which row I am at. If I see 3 K2togs below plus 2 rows above the latest K2tog, I know that now I have worked (a+3b)+2 rows.

When increasing for chest, I often use the "knit from the horizontal thread" method to create a tiny hole intentionally, because this kind of shaping stitch is easy to see and count. Since they are always symmetrical, they look decorative, too.
Do you have similar tips to share?