New Year's Resolution: Yarn Storage

It's just a start, and we'll get into it more deeply later.  For starters, how do you store your yarn right now?  Is it in bags and boxes and bins and closet shelves and basement corners and attic shelves?  It's time to update your plan.

This project will take a little planning, and some time.  Before you begin, figure out what kind of storage you're going to need to make an organized stash.  Make a solid estimate of how much yarn you really have.  Maybe a few plastic storage bins are all you need.  Maybe a few large plastic zipper-close bags.  Definitely labels OR index cards or both.


Next, you'll need to figure out where they yarn will be stored.  You can put it anywhere except the attic as long as it's properly packaged.  It needs to be safe from heat, humidity, and dust.  Under the stairs, a guest room closet, a heated garage, the basement, empty bookshelves, a wine rack... The places are endless.  The packaging is the key.

Many folks like to store their stash in open bins and shelves in their homes in a den, craft room or guest room.  That's very pretty, and effective in some cases.  However, if you leave your windows open at any time during the year, or prop your doors open, you risk moths and other pests settling in to your stash.  YUCK!  Pulling out a skein and discovering it's been moth eaten is annoying and expensive.  Yarn also absorbs cooking smells, cigarette smoke, pet dander and scents, and of course, cats love to play with any exposed yarn they can get their paws into.

The system of using shoe pouches is a better one, in that it protects the yarn on three sides, and it's easy to tell what colors and yarns are in your stash.  The yarn labels appear to be missing, which I would advise against.  Still, the yarn is open to bugs and contaminants.  Zipper bags in the pouches would be better.

The system I would recommend is putting your yarns in a sealed plastic container.  I love the clear plastic bins, and zipper bags.  I use them together.  If you want to use the shoe pouch system, put each skein in a zipper-close bag.  Ditto if you want to use an open bin system  No matter what system you use, keep a ball band with the yarn whenever you can. 

In the bin system at right, the ball bands are with the skeins.  The bins are completely sealed, so basements and garages are now an option, because humidity, pests and contaminants are kept at bay.  The bins are medium-sized, which makes organization and stash-diving very easy.  I would add labels to the ends and top of each bin, but otherwise, this looks like a major step in the right direction. 

Assess your stash, and start planning.  In the next article, we'll detail the packing process.  It will make your stash a delight.  I promise!

 

Turtle-necked Capelet





Turtle-necked Capelet, currently in progress

I've been wanting a piece of outerwear that hearkens back to the ponchos my mother made for me when I was a kid.  It was the seventies, and they were a great fall layer.  Now that ponchos and capelets are back in a big way, I have a different take.  I have a lovely pima cotton and silk lace one that takes a chill off beautifully in the summer.  And I've often lusted after the wrap in the cover of Wrap Style, by Pam Allen and Ann Budd.  Different from the seventies, and in a really good way!

I'm not one to knit patterns by other people very often.  I'm really opinionated, first of all; and I also like making things tailored specifically to my own body.  I decided to make a capelet for me, and instead of making the lovely Fair Isle design on the book cover, I would make one featuring texture. I  realized that it was a great way to utilize my embarrassing stash, which is filled with leftover yarns I love from past projects.  It's almost like a knitter's memory quilt! 

So far I've used more than ten different yarns, between colors and specific brands and styles.  Using each one for only a row or two has resulted in some interesting texture, as I'd hoped, but also created an obvious contrast between the different features and benefits of the yarns.  It made me decide to share some of my opinions.  After all, these are yarns I've loved over the years.  I hope you love some of them, too!

First off, I used the Cascade Yarns Baby Alpaca Chunky.  It's one of my favorte yarns, and I always have a bunch of ball ends around, so I've been using that.  It's soft and fluffy, and knits easily.  It retains its loft, and looks gorgeous knit up.

Not usually a fan of any synthetics in any significant proportion, I was delighted to fall in love with Kraemer Yarns Fountain Hill Brushed Mohair.  It's 80% acrylic, and 20% mohair.  It has that lovely halo we all love from mohair, but isn't as weak and wispy as some of the mohairs out there.  The acrylic allows the mohair to stand up beautifully as a carry along yarn.  It smoothly travels over the needles, and blends with the yarn it's carried with.  It says it's a 2 weight, and I would even suggest that it might be a 1 on its own.  I don't think I'd use it as a single yarn, but I love it as part of a pair.

Another returning favorite is Cascade Pima Tencel, a 3 weight.  It's a beautiful blend with a lovely sheen.  For all of those who hate knitting with cotton, you won't like this any better, as it retains all of its cotton charicteristics and adds the strength and sheen from the pima.  The stitch definition is fabulous, but as such, it shows every little mistake.  If you're a smooth knitter who loves to show off your stitches, this is an excellent yarn for you.

The color palette (lavender, teal, sage, pink) was decided by the colors in the Universal Yarns Bamboo Bloom Handpaints Fallen Petals colorway with which I fell in love at my LYS.  It's a thick and thin, listed as bulky weight, 48% Rayon from Bamboo, 44% wool, and 8% acrylic.  The thin part is approximately sock weight, and the thick is a bulky, sometimes a roving.  It has several different finishes within its skein, each revealing itself a yard or two at a time.  It comes in several colorways, and though I'm fussy about my variegateds, I genuinely love every colorway I've seen.

In the same pink, lavender and sage green colorway as the Bamboo Bloom is the Mission Falls 1824 Cotton, held here with the Cascade Pima Cotton, and although it's been discontinued, you can find it out there.  Swaps, Ravelry stash busting, and even a few online outlets still have it.  It's two ply, one very thin and one thicker, giving it a texture all it's own, and the colors are dreamy.  Mission Falls, we miss you.

Both Mountain Colors Moguls and Mountain Colors Mohair Loops have stunning texture all their own, and I've inserted them periodically to accent the color (teal) and to vary the texture. Moguls is 96% wool and 4% nylon.  It knits up in a nubby boucle texture that's toasty warm and beautiful.  Mohair Loops is 93% mohair, 4% wool, and 3% nylon.  It's strong and soft, and sheds less than most mohairs I've used.  It has a lively sheen to it, and makes a beautiful accent to the smoother yarns in the piece.  I can see it as collar and cuffs on a coat or sweater in my future.

Cascade Sierra, a blend of cotton and wool, has a beautiful finish, and comes in wonderful colors.  I love the way it wears, and it's so soft!  It comes in many coordinating colorways with the rest of the Cascade line.  Cascade 220 is in the mix, too, as one of the cream components.  It's a standard worsted weight wool, the workhorse of the knitting world.  It's reliable and easy, as always.  And Cascade Luna is a cotton two ply much like the Mission Falls, but is a heavier yarn.  It' says DK, but it's a little heavier than most of my Dks.  The finish is incredibly soft, as are the colorways.  In this case, I'm using it doubled with the Cascade Pima Cotton, both in the sage and fern color families. 

Since I'm using most of the yarns doubled and sometimes tripled, it's hard to estimate how much yardage I'll end up using.  I'm working on size US 8 needles, and it's making a heavy fabric with a lovely drape. 

I'm really enjoying digging through my stash every few rounds to bing in a new texture, weight, or color.  It has me remembering all the original projects made from these yarns.  I think I'm going to love wearing this capelet.  It's like 10 years of knitting history wrapped up in one project.

Moving Confusion

In the last couple of weeks I've moved into an apartment.  It's not a dump, but it's not a palace, either.  It's a simple, humble apartment in a safe neighborhood.

Anyone who has moved recently will understand the following: living in a new space is disorienting; putting stuff away in a place that makes sense today does not guarantee you can find it tomorrow; paint doesn't smell nearly as bad as it did 10 years ago; the thin veneer of clean and Elisabeth decor does not make the new place feel like home. 

There is a profound amount of shopping involved with moving, and most of it is annoying.  It isn't the delightful "let's redecorate the living room" type.  It's the "dammit, the couch won't fit through the door" type.  Or the "I ran out of painter's tape yesterday and forgot to get more today so I need to get some tomorrow" type.

In the meantime, I've assembled and shipped the Gift Knits Kits, and sent a very cool pair of mittens to TNNA with my friends at Mountain Colors.  The Kits came back for a postage problem, but they're really on their way now.  None of that stuff got misplaced in the shuffle, and I am grateful.

I carefully moved yarn and needles absolutely first so I could maintain my sanity by knitting at least a little each day.  That worked out great until I finished the first project.  It would be great if I could remember where I put those early yarn boxes.  Now I have a pattern to finish, and I can't find the intended yarn.  My stash is very large, and located in a variety of bins, boxes and bags that made sense in my old living circumstance.  Now that they are out of context, I can see the flaws in the organizing system.  (Okay, no system; there are flaws in the placing of a lot of yarn in unmarked bins and boxes and then moving them to a new abode.)

The good news is that while looking for the specific pattern yarn, I'm rediscovering fibers in my stash that haven't seen the light of day for a while.  The bad news is, I really don't know where the specific yarn I need is hiding.  I hope it's with the missing earrings, and wine glasses, and AV cables, and my iron.  It would be a strange box to have all those things in it, but it's much more discouraging to think all that stuff is lurking separately.  Coffee, chocolate, and red wine will all help.  (And they all stain.  Did I mention the new place has white carpets?)  We'll start with coffee.  This will all settle down.  It's Friday.  Okay.  This isn't panic, it's energy!  Gotta go find that yarn.

Ghosts of Knitting Past

I was trying to tame my stash last night.  I don't know why.  I know better.  I had this notion that I could separate all the wools from all the non-wools, and that this would somehow make my life more - I don't know.  Better.  In this process I discovered many things:



Applique Stocking Sample



1. I own a whole heckuva lot of yarn.

2.  The stash is about the same weight as my dog.  Max is a German Shorthaired Pointer, Labrador Retriever mix.  Think your average 8 year old child.

3.  My children become concerned when they see the entire family room furniture and floor covered in yarn, when I'm sitting in the middle, head in hands, saying, "Maybe. Maybe."

4. While purchasing yarn I have largely disregarded my allergy to wool.

5. I really DID buy a ton of Cascade Pure Alpaca about a year ago.  I just found it again after looking several times.

6. While purchasing yarn I have made a great many dubious choices.



Tweed Faroe Mitten.  Why?



Why would I buy one skein of cashmere that is only 60 yards? Why would I buy tweeds for a Faroe Project? (Yes I did.  There are pictures to prove it.)  Why did I store the stash in so many different places?

How could I lose track of making Christmas stockings for my children, and just quit after designing and knitting a sample? Why would I store FOs in with the stash?  When did I ever think I would use acrylic for anything except baby blankets?  Why is my darning egg in with the bulky yarns?

This makes me think that a few years from now, while re-sorting the stash, I may find more unanswered questions.  Will I be wondering why I made so many cowls?  What was my obsession with mittens all about?  How much sock yarn does any woman need?  What the heck was I thinking the last time I sorted out the stash?

Building Character

I'm trying to be more Zen in my knitting.  Balance and completion...  I've been prone to ridiculous bouts of Startitis, casting on everything in sight.  I've finished knitting a project, and left the finish work for weeks or months.  I've modified a pattern, not made notes, put it down for months, and gone back completely perplexed as to what the heck I was doing.

I'm still prone to all this, but I'm doing better.  I'm not a Zen Monk, though.  I haven't gotten my knitting journal anywhere near up to date, but I make notes of my modifications on post-its attached to the pattern.  I do my finish work.  I never have more than three things on the needles at a time, one portable, one for home, and one for a class or testing out one of my new designs.  Usually. 

Recently I didn't buy any yarn for a whole year, committing to working through my stash.  Why did I do this?  Was my stash threatening to overtake the oven, kitchen cupboards, and shower?  (Only a little.)  Was I cutting back on my knitting? (Perish the thought.)

No.  I enjoy my knitting more when I savor the current project. As much as I hate to admit it, I can't knit as fast as I can find beautiful fibers to buy.  (Dammit.)  I still feel some backlog pressure, but it's more vague: I look forward to working on that brioche rib vest,  I want to get those mittens done for my husband, and I can't wait to test out this punk sweater for my daughter.  Someday I will either covet less or knit faster.  For now, unrequited yarn lust is building character.  At least, that's what I tell myself.

Mysteries of the Stash Unravelled

I'm momemts away from finishing the socks for the Mr., and realizing that I will have some yarn leftover. This reminds me of the mystery of the stash - how much yarn is in each of those leftover balls?

The original ball band tells me that this particular yarn was 5oz, and 405yds. To know what's left, I can just weigh the remaining ball (on the little $10 kitchen scale) and use that weight to calculate the remaining yardage. 405yds in 5oz means there were 81yds per oz. I have a half an ounce left, so I have 40yds. If I stick this ball in a snack size baggie with a lable of yardage and the original ball band, I know all I need to know.

My kitchen scale allows me to switch back and forth from grams to ounces, which makes it all the more handy. It's one of the best knitting tools I've ever bought.

In cases where I have multiple colors of the same yarn type, (Cascade 220 for example) I can leave one ball band in a larger bag with all the remainder balls, and weigh out each color and list them on one piece of paper in the bag.

This is a fiddly process, but a really fast one. It saves me a ton of time when I'm sorting out yarns for projects. If a sweater calls for 1500yds of the main color, and one skein of contrast for a stripe on color and cuffs, it likely doesn't need hundreds of yards of contrast. Comparing the skein size in the pattern and my stash labels, I can tell if a leftover ball will do the job or if I need a new one. For colorwork projects and intarsia that only use a smidge of a color to fill in a flower or an eye or a leaf, again it's pretty easy to know if I have the yardage I need.

Give it a try. I hope it helps!