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Organizing Your Yarn Labels

March 18, 2015 1 Comment

Tips for Organizing Your Yarn Labels - great info for knitting, crochet and yarn lovers!

When I finish a knitting project, or even just finish a skein of yarn, I’m often met with a slight dilemma: what to do with my yarn labels. For the longest time, I’d just shove them into the middle of a densely-packed gallon zipper bag, end of story. Then I started designing. Since the time between design concept and publication can be so long (when dealing with print in particular), it’s important to know which label goes with what yarn and project.

Phase 1 of the label organization process for me involves a single hole punch, a permanent marker, and my unoccupied yarn labels. When possible, I also look for a scrap of yarn that goes with the label. The analog part of the process is obvious: punch a hole in the label without cutting off important info about the yarn, loop the yarn through the hole, and write the project(s) this yarn was used for and when on the label. Below you can see my stashed labels from the Long John Cowl and the Simple Basketweave Baby Blanket.

Tips for Organizing Your Stash Digitally Why save this stuff?

I think saving labels and scraps is important for any knitter. For one, there’s the nostalgia factor. If you’ve knit for years, especially, you might want to go back and remember what yarn it was that went with what project. You might want to look back and laugh at the trendy colorways from ten years ago.

You might also want to know what dye lot, fiber composition*, or even just the yarn’s brand or name. Let’s say you’ve got a small ball leftover of a bunch of different yarns from years of projects. You find the perfect stash-buster type pattern, but you want to make sure to use roughly compatible fibers and/or you want to have a vague idea of how to wash these different yarns together. Keeping your labels can be useful, even for hobby knitters.

*wool, cotton, what percentage of multiple fiber types was used in the yarn

As a designer, I need my old labels for reference for a lot of things. I might need to remember if I simply liked a yarn used in the past. Once you’ve been knitting awhile, there might be a finished object in your closet that just hasn’t stood the test of time. If it’s one of my designs, I like to look back at my stash and take note of what that yarn was so I can bear that in mind when I design with that yarn next. I get reader questions sometimes from folks who lost track of their labels for a project they know I’ve designed with. Sometimes people who like my patterns or read this blog are just looking for some help since they can’t remember how to launder a project or remember what the yarn used was called. I could seriously go on – there are lots of reasons to save those labels! ;)

How I organize yarn labels digitally

I’ll be honest. As a librarian, I’m kinda into organizing things. On top of the analog system outlined above, I have a couple of digital elements involved in my stash organization. For one, having this blog is an easy way to go back and see all of my patterns and their corresponding supplies logged in one place. Since it would be pretty random to have wrinkled old labels with yarn scraps hanging off them, it doesn’t make sense to have those included in a blog post. Instead, I’ve been using my new HP Sprout to scan in my labels and scraps.

Over time I’ll build a virtual library of all my labels, and even the blocked swatches I have laying about. This library can be stored in the cloud, where it will be a lot more secure than a physical storage system would allow. Don’t get me wrong – I’ll still keep my physical labels & swatch stash for measuring gauge, feeling texture, etc., but what if there’s a natural disaster some day? Or a fire? I’ll still be able to see my digital swatches and labels so I’m not left at square one despite decades of knitting experience.

As you can see in the images on my Sprout below, I’m also experimenting with scanning in full balls of yarn. While Ravelry has great tools for cataloging your yarn and needle stash, I want to play with the idea of making a visual archive of my yarn craft materials, including labels, swatches, balls of yarn and more. This is where my librarian career influences my creative career, I realize, but how cool would it be to link a scan of yarn with its corresponding swatch & label in a database, and then catalog it so you could search it by fiber, color, washing instructions, and even anecdotes about how it was to work with?

Nerd alert? Perhaps. At least I’d be an efficient, organized one! :)

Organizing Your Stash Digitally with the HP Sprout

This post is sponsored by HP, who provided compensation and a Sprout in exchange for blog posts highlighting its innovative new technology. All opinions are my own. 

Filed Under: Crochet, Giveaways, Reviews & Sponsored, Knitting Tagged With: ciy, crochet, hp sprout, knit, stash, swatching, yarn stash

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. She specializes in knitting, crochet, latch hook and macramé, and her first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is out now!

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Comments

  1. marion

    October 9, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    Thank you very much ,I wish I did this year’s ago but will definitely get started on my next progect

    Reply

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Heidi Gustad from Hands Occupied / Craft Book Author and Knitting, Crochet, Latch Hook and Macrame Designer

Hi! I’m Heidi (she/her/hers), a craft book author & pattern designer specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. Really anything with yarn! ❤️  My work combines vintage and modern design elements, featuring bold colors and graphic motifs.

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If you look closely, you’ll see I’m casually k If you look closely, you’ll see I’m casually knitting from one sweater into another here, no big deal. (What can I say, I lost a game of yarn chicken. 😂) I almost didn’t post this because I was worried someone might have some nonsense to say about my ability to knit. Then I remembered I can’t care about that. Silly me, I almost forgot myself! 
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Speaking of which, dang it’s good to have my mental health back consistently after the past couple of years. The anxious parts of my personality are just chilling, rather than constantly screaming that my work isn’t good enough to share. The confident parts of me that matter have me creating (and starting to share my creations & process with strangers and friends) again! 
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I’m feeling better, & all my [big, bad bug] proj I’m feeling better, & all my [big, bad bug] project needs is a couple of short sleeves! I’ll be finishing this sweater *just* before it gets too warm to wear, but isn’t that always how it goes? 🫠🧶 
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Just divided the sleeves on this quick sweater, wh Just divided the sleeves on this quick sweater, which has unsurprisingly turned into a love letter to primary colors. ❤️💛💙 The heart stripe is a wee tweak I incorporated, and I don’t regret it! 
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