Tidy Mind, Tidy Stitches #2KCBWDay3 #2KCBWD

Today's Topic: How do you keep your yarn wrangling organized? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organization exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organized at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organized, blog about an aspect of that organization process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organized stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

There are people out there that don’t have a large yarn stash. They buy just enough yarn for their projects – no more; no less. I use to be one of those people when I first started knitting. Then I discovered yarn shops. That’s when I started working towards S.A.B.L.E (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). Or, at least it appeared I was working towards S.A.B.L.E.

In the beginning, ALL my yarn was stored in my storage ottoman. I found this the perfect place for it as this piece of furniture resided between my sofa and my entertainment center. I didn’t need to leave my seat to get yarn. Additionally, the depth of the storage area was just right. Back then, my yarn was arranged by type of yarn and had a designated section of the ottoman. Yes, each type of yarn had its “section.” At one point I even had them in plastic containers in the ottoman. I got over this phase very quickly.

Upon moving to a new place, I relocated some of my yarn stash. Acrylic yarns would remain in my storage ottoman; however, all the “good stuff,” a.k.a. all my wool/wool blend stash, was placed in my cedar chest. Organization in the ottoman became a free-for-all. Honestly, even these days I’ll just open it up and throw my acrylic in there with out a second thought to rhyme or reason. (Wow! Just reading that makes me realize how much love I "don't" show acrylic.

The cedar chest is another story. Sock yarn rides in the upper half of the chest and all other weight yarns in the lower half. My sock yarn definitely has way more organization to it then the worsted or other weight yarns. (Yes, I also play favorites with my good stuff to some degree.) How sock yarn is organized depends . . . Momentarily they are arranged by dyer. Sometimes they are arranged by color. Other times I’ll group them based upon the type of project I have in mind for them – socks vs. shawls. Can you say uber organization?

Even the minis for the sock yarn blankie project has a home to call its own. All the minis reside in a plastic bag that once housed comforter set. (I stole the idea from a friend.)

I find all this organization interesting because it's really the only thing in my place the is THAT organized. Or at least it is the only think that I recognize to be THAT organized. I do pride myself on the fact that if I wanted, you could step into my place and never really know how much yarn I have in my possession. It is my preference that it is that way. It actually bothers me a bit to have yarn all over the place. Even the tiniest scrap of yarn lying on the floor bug me.

On the flip-side of all this .... organization of my needles and other various knitting accoutrement is virtually non-existent. I'm lucky I still can find the basics - needles and crochet hook. Actually, sometimes I can't. I suppose now that since my stash is so well organized it is time to focus on organizing these items.

Until later . . .