Oh boy, what a project I am working on! When we had our heating issue and had to empty closets and move everything in order to access the pipes, I became all too aware of how much yarn I have. I found Michael’s bags with a few balls of Sugar ‘n Cream. I found baskets with a couple skeins tucked away. And my storage tote was overflowing. I decided that I really needed to go through and organize it all, so that is what I did today.
I started out with everything just thrown together.
I decided that I was going to get rid of any yarn that was terribly tangled, and say “goodbye” to any unfinished project to which I no longer had the pattern, or was over a year old.
I’ll be honest: it wasn’t easy. There were some Stitch-cation squares I let go of, some half-complete dishcloths with yarn that was broken or tangled, and a cowl I had started with Red Heart Unforgettable. Love the colors, but hated working with the yarn!
Does anyone remember the planned pooling craze? Yeah, I wanted to try it out and got frustrated, I guess. Found this in there, too. I just cut off the portion that I had done. Tension is so important when you’re doing that technique — no point in trying to pick it back up now!.
I just had to get rid of these things for my own sanity. Also, any clumps of “yarn barf” went right in the trash. The point of this exercise was not to spend hours detangling!
Then it was on to trying to decide how to organize everything. I’d love to have beautiful open storage, but we have cats. And the cats love yarn. Therefore, totes are the most practical storage, if not the prettiest.
I now have one for acrylic yarns (my go-to), one for “fancy” acrylics (like Caron Cakes, some that have glitter or sequins, etc.), one for cotton dishcloth yarn:
And finally one smallish box of specialty yarn (anything I purchase at real yarn store, or at the Sheep & Wool festival):
I’m not 100% done yet. My acrylic tote is still overflowing, but tonight my plan is to break out the yarn winder. Some of the half-used skeins can be wound into compact cakes and that should make a difference for storage (not to mention it’s probably better for the yarn).
So yeah… I really think I can go on a “yarn diet” for a few months and try to use what I have. However, I think part of my problem is that it never was really organized before, so if I wasn’t sure if I had a color I’d buy it instead of digging through everything. That shouldn’t happen now!