Marking your needlebed

There has been some discussion on the Ravelry MK group lately about marking the needlebed for repeating patterns. I just wanted to share what's currently on my midgauge:



This is for a Lizard Ridge jumper, currently partly knitted. Made the strips with Openoffice, the bands are 5mm high. You can still use the machine for other things as the numbers aren't obscured. You can specify an exact column width in OpenOffice. No idea what Excel uses, it always takes me several prints and some maths to make something useful with it.

How does this work? Well, I work a mini sock heel in the red area, moving along the bed from right to left. After knitting 3 plain rows, I work mini sock heels in the blue areas. Simples!