Thanks for sharing the photos of your piles of yarn yesterday. I hope if you didn’t post it publicly, you still took a photo of your stash. This is Day 7 (one full week!) of 31 Days to Get Organized. Today we’re yarn destashing. A yarn purge. Yarn decluttering, whatever you want to call it. Essentially, we’re trying to get rid of the yarn we don’t love or won’t use.

Getting rid of yarn can be a hard task for many, especially if you paid good money for the yarn, or if someone you care about gave the yarn to you as a gift. But our time is too short and our spaces are too precious to have them filled with yarn and things that aren’t useful to us. So grab some containers for your big sort. With my recent move, I’ve already tossed anything that is useless to most. I’ve also given away a lot of yarn too. Whenever I get rid of yarn, I pause and think “Am I going to miss it?” 99% of the time, I never think about the yarn again. And all the recipients of the the “free” yarn totally make up for the 1% I kind of wish I had back.

So back to the piles you’re going to make.

Keep It! – If you like the yarn, if you plan to use the yarn, even if it just brings back a happy memory, sort the yarn into your keep pile. Most of the yarn in my stash I intend to knit, crochet, or weave someday. (I’ll be around until I’m 97, so I have some time.) But I have yarn in my stash I have no intensions of ever using. It’s keepsake yarn for one reason or another. I’m ok with this. I keep this yarn out in the open in a bowl, on top of the shelf of my craft books. I look at the yarn frequently. This makes me happy, so I’m keeping it.

Find A Better Home – Then there’s the yarn we don’t like anymore, or don’t have any use for. There are SO many other places where this yarn could be used. On Wednesday, I’ll be posting lots of ideas for new homes for wayward yarns, places to sell yarns, and places to give them away. Stay tuned.

Just Throw It Away – Sometimes there’s just no hope for a yarn. Maybe you tried making something; it became hideous; and the yarn fused to itself. You really can’t rip it out now. NOBODY is going to want it. So just chuck it in the garbage. Have a few yards left from a project? Toss it too. On Friday, we’ll post some ideas of what you can do with your leftover yarn. But sometimes, it’s best if it just goes in the trash can. You make the call. Some of you can’t bear to throw out a scrap. Who knows, maybe someday you could use it for a knitted toy or some crochet amigurumi. But if you don’t have the patience for saving bits of yarn, toss it.

A yarn destashing can take a little bit of time. There’s a lot of decisions to be made. Have you ever noticed that it’s not the organizing that takes so much time, but all of the decisions you have to make?

Tomorrow we’ll have a tutorial on how to recycle yarn from a project you’ve ripped out so you can add it back to your yarn stash. This gives you an extra day to possibly spend on destashing. Take the time you need. The rest of the organizing posts will be waiting for you when you’re ready.

Happy destashing!

- Dena

Today is Day 6 in the 31 Days to Get Organized series. As you can see, we’re going to dive into our yarn stashes. I know a lot of you have been looking forward to tackling your yarn stash. Today’s task is a simple one. I want you to collect all of your yarn and take a quick picture. There’s a few reasons why we’re starting with this task.

It’s hard to organize what you can’t see – It’s going to be much easier to come up with a way to sort your yarn if you can actually see what you have.

Finding the hidden yarn – Once you start pulling out your yarn in the open, the act of gathering it may jog your memory of other places you’ve been hiding storing yarn.

A picture is worth a thousand words – Seeing your entire stash in front of you may make you look at it in a different way. You might be thinking you’d like to start trying some new colors beyond your usual. Or you may have more or less yarn than you actually do.

A yarn time capsule – I photograph my entire stash every so often. It’s fun to have a snapshot frozen in time and to look back at what my yarn stash used to look like.

Yarn as inspiration – As you pull out the yarn, seeing it and feeling it may inspire you to start working on a project you forgot about. Or if you’ve been in a knitting and crocheting funk lately, you might get the urge to start playing with your yarn again.

As you create your wonderful pile of yarn, pay attention to what yarns you get excited about seeing again and what yarns you’re less than thrilled about having around still. If you do not already have a way of sorting your yarn that’s been working for you, start thinking about how you may want to organized your stash (by color, weight, fiber, project).

I would suggest piling your stash somewhere you can leave it for a couple of days. We’ll be working on purging, sorting, and storing our yarn stashes this week. And yes, pulling everything out into the open, it’s going to look worse before it gets better.

Feel free to post your photo of your stash in the comments, on our Facebook wall, or our Ravelry page. It’s fun to see everyone joining along.

- Dena

Good evening everyone. It’s Day 5 of 31 Days to Get Organized and we’re onto our final WIPs task tonight. All of our works in progress are organized now (well mine aren’t quite yet, but will be by the end of the weekend). So today’s task is to make sure the notes we’re keeping on our projects are up to date.

I learned to knit before the days of Ravelry, and kept all my notes from projects in my Stitch ‘N Bitch Design Journal. Once I completed a project I would write about it on my blog. Knitting was the reason I started a blog. But now Ravelry is my notebook, and my blog is pretty silent these days. I add all of my projects to Ravelry and try to keep good notes, partially for my sake as a record of my work. It’s hard to remember all of the details like what yarn I used, who I made something for, what alterations to patterns I made. I’m glad it’s all there for me to come back to later. But I also know that some of this information is useful for others too wanting to make the same pattern. That’s the other reason I continue to keep my projects up to date on Ravelry.

Do you keep track of your projects on Ravelry too? Or do you prefer to write them down in a notebook?

Welcome to Day 4 of our 31 Days to Get Organized series. We’re done sorting through our unfinished projects and left some clues so we can pick them back up again later. Next task is storing them so they’re ready for you when you’re ready for them.

Everyone has a limit to how many WIPs that they are comfortable with. Some people only work on one project at a time. When they finish it, they’ll start another. Others may only have at most 2 or 3 projects going. For these folks, they really don’t need to come up with a system for storing their works in progress. But when your WIPs grow much more than 3 projects, coming up with a way to keep them organized can be really helpful, otherwise you might start to lose track of some of the pieces, making it much harder to start knitting or crocheting that project again.

A few years ago I purchased this Lantern Moon Tower to store my WIPs. There are a few things that I really like about this storage solution. I like what it looks like so I don’t mind it being out in the open. Out of sight can mean out of mind. This stand currently lives next to my desk so I see it every day, reminding me of projects that need to be finished. I also like that it is vertical storage, so it doesn’t take up much floor space. Though I can fit quite a bit in the baskets, it’s a defined amount of space for my WIPs. I don’t allow them to accumulate beyond what I can store in the tower. Maybe it’s an arbitrary limit, but seems to be what I’m comfortable with.

As I look at my tower of projects, I see that it’s terribly disorganized (for my comfort level). Projects that need to be frogged, old swatches from finished projects, skeins of yarn not actually in a current project. I’ve got some sorting and cleaning up to do. Ideally, I like to keep all of the yarn and pattern for a project together, where each project has a separate project bag. My large Amethyst Crochet Blanket is too big to fit in one basket now. So it lives in my largest project bag on the floor next to the tower.

I use quite an assortment of project bags. There’s the inexpensive WEBS shopping bag. Some of you may have a few of these hanging out in your house too. Gallon size or larger clear plastic zip top bags work great to store projects. They’re cheap and you can see everything that’s in the bag. My favorite type of bag for most projects is a drawstring top bag. They’re easy to use and I can stuff it easily into my messenger bag when I head out of the house. I rarely leave home without a project!

Two drawstring bags that I love (for different reasons) are the Blue Sky Alpacas Pretty Cheep Project Bags (only $6.50 each) and the GoKnit Pouch both small and medium sizes (I’m crazy about the snap loop so I can attach it to my belt loop when I’m knitting on a plane or standing and waiting for a band to start). Sometimes though, I need a larger project bag to fit everything, especially for a big project like an afghan. WEBS carries a number of large project bags. It’s a really nice splurge if you don’t have one yet. When I got hired at WEBS, the first thing I did was purchase a big project bag I had my eye on. I still love it and use it frequently.

Now you know my system for storing projects. But what works for me, may not work for you. I recommend finding a storage solution that is flexible and is easy to use. If you’re the type of person who needs to see it to remember it, store your projects out in the open or somewhere you will see them frequently. Maybe a big basket near the sofa where the projects are accessible would work well. But I suggest at least sorting the projects within the basket with separate project bags, otherwise things could quickly become a jumble. Another option could be a storage ottoman, a place to kick up your feet while knitting and crocheting AND store your projects.

But maybe you want them more tucked away. If you have a little extra closet space, hanging cubby storage would be able to fit several WIPs, easily accesible, but still out of site. Plastic storage boxes could work too. But I would recommend plastic storage drawers over boxes since they’re easier to access. If you don’t have the vertical space for drawers, then an under-the-bed rolling storage box could work better.

I’ve mentioned just a few ideas for ways to store your WIPs. What’s your favorite solution or tip for storing WIPs? Share what works for you in the comments.

- Dena

Yesterday’s task was to sort through your unfinished knitting and crochet projects (WIPs) and decided what you want to finish and what to let go. It’s Day 3 of 31 Days to Get Organized and I have a few tips for your WIPs so that they’re easier to come back to when you’re ready to pick them up again.

Don’t tie up your needles and hooks in your WIPs – If you’re going to stop working on a project for awhile, remove your knitting needles or crochet hook from your work before storing it. If it’s a crochet project, just slip in a locking stitch marker, paper clip, or waste yarn through your last stitch to keep it from unraveling. If it’s a knitting project, you’ll have a little more work to do. If you don’t have many live stitches, you can use a stitch holder (my favorite are the Clover Double Ended Stitch Holders). If you have a lot of stitches, move them to a piece of waste yarn. If you’ve never done this before, watch our How to Use a Lifeline in Knitting video to see how it’s done.

Leave a clue as to what size hook or needle you were using – You don’t always end up using the recommended size hook or needle for a project. And it’s really tough to remember what size you were using. If you haven’t made a note about your size yet, jot it down somewhere. Just write it on a sticky note and stick in your project bag.

Keep your swatch with your project – This is particularly handy if you run out of yarn and need just a little bit more to finish. You can unravel your gauge swatch and use that yarn to complete your project.

Write down details of where you left off on the pattern – I’ve spent way too many hours trying to figure out where I was in a pattern when I pick up a project again. Often I have to unknit or rip back my crochet to a known point in the pattern, very frustrating. Leave some kind of trace on the pattern, either a sticky note, highlighter tape, or actually writing on the pattern itself. I’ve learned not to trust the numbers on counters anymore since sometimes these get changed by accident (or by little children).

Make a note of the size you’re making – This comes up most often for me with sweater patterns either for me or babies and toddlers. It’s not always obvious which size I intended to make.

What tips do you have that make it easier to pick up a WIP and start knitting or crocheting it again? Share your tip in the comments.

- Dena

Welcome to day 2 of our 31 Days to Get Organized series. Today we’re digging out all of our knitting and crochet works-in-progress (otherwise know as WIPs). Some of you don’t have a pile of unfinished projects. You may be a one-project-at-a-time kind of person. Or you may never have more than a couple projects going at a time.

But some of us are overwhelmed by the growing number of projects that we’ve started and can’t seem to finish. There are many reasons that keep us from finishing a project.

• Running out of yarn
• Getting bored with the pattern
• Starting a new project you’re more interested in
• Getting stuck with some part of the pattern
• The person you were making the project for outgrew the size you were making
• You no longer like it or you never liked it
• You took out the needles or hook and can’t remember the size you were using
• Holiday or gift making took over and you never picked up the project again
• You have finished all the pieces, but hate seaming.

Whatever reason you’ve dropped a project, it’s ok to not finish it if you don’t love it anymore. Give yourself permission to let it go.

You can see above the Berroco Eastlake sweater I started 4 1/2 years ago. You know a project has been around awhile when the yarn has been discontinued. (Here’s hoping I have enough yarn to finish the sweater, otherwise it’ll be a short-sleeve sweater). This is my oldest project. My knitting gauge may have changed over the years. But I still really like this pattern and love the yarn. So it’s a keeper.

I recently looked at a multi-block afghan I’ve been knitting for years and realized I hate the yarn. Every time I picked up the afghan to knit, it made me grumpy. But I do like the pattern. So I gave myself permission to give away the blocks I had knit and the rest of the yarn too. Then I picked my favorite yarn and started the afghan over.

So your task today is to pull out all of your projects, old and new, and decide what you’re going to finish, and what you’re going to frog (rip out). If you can’t stand the idea of frogging it, you can also pass it onto someone else to finish.

What’s your oldest WIP? What project are you determined to finish in 2013? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

- Dena

p.s. Sorry about the late post today. I flew back home from Minnesota and got sick from my family on top of that. But I did get nice knitting time on the airplanes!

Many of you have made New Year’s resolutions to get your craft life organized in 2013. Some of you want to finally finish those lingering unfinished knitting and crochet projects (UFOs). Some are overwhelmed by their yarn stash. Others may want to organize their craft supplies so they can find what they need, when they need it.

January is National Get Organized Month. Before I started working for WEBS many years ago, I was a professional organizer, and I’m still passionate about organizing (now yarn too). Through the month of January, I will be posting tips and advice on decluttering, organizing, and storing your works-in-progress (WIPs), yarn stash, patterns, and more.

To get things started, your first task is to make a list of what’s working for you and a list of what you want to improve. For example, I love my circular knitting needle and DPN storage solution; all of my knitting and crochet supplies are in one room; and using Ravelry to keep track of my projects (current and future) works great for me. But I have problems with my WIPs staying on the needles for way too long; my patterns are a mess; and somehow my yarn stash is large yet I never have the yarns I need when I want them.

In the comments below, share the one thing that is your biggest organizational challenge when it comes to your knitting and crochet. I’ll try to include solutions to each challenge in one of the upcoming 31 Days to Get Organized posts this month. I’m really looking forward to helping you all get more organized this month!

- Dena

Amy shows us how to make the perfect pom pom in this week’s tip. You can use pom poms to top a hat, add some flair to your holiday packages, or to decorate almost anything!

Step 1: Place two pieces of the pom pom maker together with the tabs facing out.  Make sure you have one of each of the different pieces.  One has raised dots and one is flat.

Step 2. Begin wrapping the two pieces together with whatever yarn you are making the pom pom with.  You can change colors as much as you want or not at all.  Wrap the yarn until the semi-circle is full.  I always wrap it more than I think I should.  This gives you a nice full, dense pom pom at the end.

Step 3. Repeat with the other two pieces.

Step 4. Place the two wrapped semi circles together to create a circle, with scissors cut around the circle in the space between the two pieces.

Step 5. Now, take a length of yarn, place it in the space between the two pieces, tie a half knot and pull tightly.  You are securing all the little cut pieces together in the center of the pomp on.  Tie another half knot to finish securing the center.  You can trim these long pieces later, but I like to use them to secure the pom pom to whatever I am making or to hang it.

Step 6. Take the plastic pieces apart and off of the pom pom and trim the pom pom until it is round, it will initially look a little oblong.

Now you have a nice dense, round pom pom to put on the top of a hat or hang as a decoration!

Have you ever tried knitting entrelac? It’s an absolutely beautiful technique that can be a little cumbersome to work. It involves knitting a few stitches at a time, turning your work, and purling back these few stitches. When I was knitting the Autum Shawl, flipping my work constantly started to get really frustrating and even difficult as the shawl got larger.

Knitting backwards, or it’s also referred to as reverse knitting, eliminates the need to flip your work. Take your left needle and put it into the back of the stitch on your right needle. Yarn over, and pull the the stitch through. The stitch will end up on your left needle. You’ll see that you really are knitting backwards, creating knit stitches by working left to right.