Trish Knits.com

Tonight’s Blog Week question? “How do you keep your yarn organized? I’ve even been dared to flash my stash. Well, I can take a dare as well as anybody! So, here you go:

This is an alcove corner of my dining room, which is mostly used for storage except for the occasional Sunday Family Dinner. I keep my yarn in these semi-opaque bins, and they’re all labeled by general category of what’s in them:

That one is obvious what’s in it, and for the most part, they all are. For example, I actually have two bins of Cascade yarns in tons of colors. Are these bins the entirety of the stash? Um, no. Not even I’m crazy enough to show you the whole thing. But, truthfully that is the majority of it. It’s stacked taller than I am!

Then there’s the ottoman in front of the sofa, that holds yarn I’m actually working with.*

*This, of course, was the theory when I bought the ottoman in 2009. I filled it with yarn for projects I was working on at the time, and THAT yarn is still in the ottoman, even though for the most part, I am not actively working on any of the projects in it. Except that that’s where the Noro Kureyon ended up, which I love to make hats with, and I’ve been using the leftover bits to make a sort of patchwork blanket with. I figure that blanket is going to be the equivalent of my life’s work, because I only work on it a little bit at a time, when I’m between projects, and that, in itself, is rare.

Next to the ottoman is my wall of knitting books:

This shelf unit is along a long wall and is overstuffed with knitting books and magazines, and a few tools that I need to reach easily, like the blocking squares and the ball winder. I have them organized by frequency of use; that is, the ones I refer to all the time are easy for me to reach, and the ones I need less often are in kid-climb-after-that-please-and-hand-it-to-mommy range. I have a lot of knitting books. A LOT. I recently reorganized the shelf and was embarrassed to find a couple of titles that I had more than one copy of, and I’ll be sharing them with my knit group. I love having so many books at my disposal. Creativity most often hits me in the middle of the night when the library is closed, and I’m known to take a pile of books down and have them all open and mash together an idea for my knitting. I almost never knit a pattern as is from a book, but I rely on them heavily for inspiration.

And, last but not least, is my most favorite organizational tool. My amazing needle case, which is actually a fishing worm binder. It’s a soft-sided case with binder rings on the inside, that hold little ziploc bags that, if used for their intended purpose, would hold live bait. Well, forget the bait! Each bag holds a different size of needle tips and then one bag holds a variety of cables in various lengths. The inside of the bag itself has tons of tiny pockets that are perfect for stitch markers, end buttons and the needle “tightening key.” There’s even one pocket on the inside which is exactly long enough for my needle sizer tool. It’s ugly, and has a big fish on it, but I love, love, love my needle binder.

Does all of this mean that I am organized? I’d be lying if I said that I was. But, I try. And, for the most part, if I want a particular yarn, I pretty much know which bin it’s in. I probably have more stash at this point than I can knit for the rest of my life… and I am hoping it doesn’t get to the point that it completely takes over my house.

Wish me luck on that!