How to Streamline Your Yarn Stash

Most fiber artists have a "stash" of yarn, and whenever there's a sale on yarn or you go to a LYS (local yarn store) and pick up more, this stash of yarn grows...and grows. So you put it in another spot in your house, pretty soon you have yarn in various spots in your home. Here's some help with organizing it.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Containers to place yarn in
• Shelves, boxes or space to put the containers
• Some way to keep inventory- Start a Ravelry Acct. to keep track of your stash & projects, or simply write 'em down on a pad of paper
• ALL your yarn

1. 
    
   Yarn addiction? Who, me?!?

   How you choose to organize your yarn will depend on you and how you think & work- fiber types, colors, projects, or even brands of yarn are some ways to arrange them. Do whatever works for you.

2. 
    

   To begin, you may want to set aside any yarn that is intended for a specific project- and clearly label it, write down what pattern or project it is for (or keep a copy of the pattern with it) and write this down on your "inventory" sheet- or log it on your Ravelry account.

3. 
    

   Then you will go through and arrange it according to how you've decided- try thinking of your favorite yarn shop and how they're displaying their yarn. For instance, you could take everything that's not intended for a specific project and divide up by fiber-type.

4. 
    

   Next categorize it further by colors within the fiber-type, making sure to keep up your inventory. When you come across yarn that you can't imagine why you bought it, and you'll probably never use it, set that aside for a swap. Also set aside the small bits- and half-used yarn oddments for tiny projects or borders or stripes.

5. 
    

   Now that you have your yarn sorted out and inventoried, take your stash and put it in whatever containers you've chosen and label it (if it's a clear container where you can see the color(s), maybe just put a label that identifies the fiber-type and brand.

6. 
    

   Now as you're putting everything back in-place think about what you'd like to swap the unwanted or odd-ball yarn for (since it's fresh in your mind, you'll probably know exactly what you want or need to make use of what you already have).

7. 
    

   Once everything's put away and inventoried, you can now work on a swap- try your local knitting groups, knitting forums and craig's list.

Tips & Warnings

• Be sure to put cedar bits, or moth balls w/ the wool yarn.
• When you are choosing containers or how to display or store your yarn, pick something that won't get the yarn dusty or damaged. If you want to display your yarn, try putting it in a large glass container with a lid, so it won't collect dust sitting out, but you can still admire it.

Resources

• Ravelry
• Craftster
• Links for Yarn-collectors & knitters
• CRAFT

[lunablue]

on 1/11/2009 great tips! 5* plus recommending you!