• 0 items$0.00
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Hands Occupied

Contemporary yarn crafts by Heidi Gustad. Knitting, crochet, latch hook and macrame.

  • BLOG
    • Knitting
    • Crochet
    • Latch Hook
    • Macramé
  • ABOUT
  • Shop
  • Studio
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

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!

Previous Post: « Things to Knit
Next Post: Picks of the Week »

Reader Interactions

DID YOU LIKE THIS POST?
Visit similar articles...

  • Inside the Design ProcessInside the Design Process
  • KnitPal Yarn Review & GiveawayKnitPal Yarn Review & Giveaway
  • Review & Giveaway: Knit Picks’ Hawthorne Fingering Kettle Dye YarnReview & Giveaway: Knit Picks’ Hawthorne Fingering Kettle Dye Yarn
  • Picks of the WeekPicks of the Week

DON’T MISS ANOTHER UPDATE

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

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

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

Hi! I’m Heidi, an author, yarn craft designer and content creator specializing in knitting, crochet, latch hook & macrame. My work unapologetically features primary colors and vintage-meets-modern style. My first book, Latch Hook: 12 Projects for the Modern Maker, is now available!

Professionally I’m most known for: advanced intarsia knitting design & modern latch hook design.

work with heidi

UPDATES BY EMAIL

Get a free pattern + biweekly updates sent to your inbox.

Let’s be friends!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
Latch Hook by Heidi Gustad

Footer

INSTAGRAM

handsoccupied

Craft book author & content creator in love with primary colors & vintage vibes. / #latchhookbook out now!
.
knitting, crochet, latch hook & macramé

Heidi Gustad 🧶✂️
Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s c Happy Wrestlemania weekend, folks!!! 🎊 It’s coincidentally International Punch Needle Rug Hooking Day today, so I’d be remiss not to share a first look at this project finished JUST in time to wear while I watch some rasslin’ on a pirate ship in a football stadium in Tampa! 💪🏻 I’m excited to watch tonight’s women’s matches the most. Eee!
.
.
Pictured: A blond woman in a denim dress and glasses wearing a giant belt made with punch needle. The belt is made with wool in primary colors and was inspired by the WWE Universal Championship title belt. 
.
This is just a preview - after jab 2.0 tomorrow (feeling grateful 🙏🏼), I’ll be editing together a vlog about the design process for this wooly waist cover. Sometimes it’s hard to know how to make some of your wilder craft ideas come to life. Stuff you’ll never find a pattern for, you know? I’ll finish editing that ASAP, but I might take a few days to edit if I feel like trash from 💉 and only want to watch wrestling and wrestling YouTube for a day or two. 😂
.
.
#ipnrhd #punchneedle #wwe #wrestling #championshipbelt #wool #yarn #handmade #universalchampionship #universalchampion #rugmaking #wrestlingfan #wrestlemania37 #wrestlemania
A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-ins A look at the halo on the back of my wrestling-inspired punch needle project! It’s interesting to see how fuzzy the handspun beige yarn is compared with the primary color sections of @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky. ❤️💛💙🤎 
.
Pictured: The back of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool sits on the work.
.
#punchneedle #woolrug #rugmaking  #kpambassadorsapr21 #sponsored #griefproject #handsoccupied #wrestlingfan #universalchampion #yarn #yarncraft #wool #needlepunch
Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishin Happy Easter / One week til Wrestlemania! Finishing up the punch needling part of this crazy @wwe inspired project by tonight. 💪🏻🧶 Anybody else have crafty plans for this fine spring day? 
.
Pictured: A blond woman sits, smiling and holding an in-progress punch needle project inspired by the Universal Championship belt. Houseplants are in the background and there’s lots of sun. 
.
#punchneedle #griefproject #handsoccupied #heidigustad #wrestlingcrafts #wwe #universalchampion #universalchampionship #wool #wooloftheandes #primarycolors #oxfordpunchneedle
I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back I'm finally starting to get some of my energy back from the past few weeks, and as I dip my toe back into production mode, the long-promised seamed sweater knitting YouTube series is at the top of my list. I've got FOUR versions of a simple sweater I've been playing with since last JULY to feature as a free pattern for folks who want to knit along during the series. Pictured is the first prototype for the series, knit in 2 colors of @knit_picks Mighty Stitch yarn. I imagine this soon-to-be short sleeved number will come in handy as an emergency Waldo costume or Christmas sweater. 🌲 
.
I've got my own list of topics I think folks would like to see in a series like this: things like tips for construction, working with vintage patterns, how to seam as invisibly as possible, and more, but as always, I'd love to hear from you: What scares you about knitting seamed sweaters? What would be helpful to cover, especially since we'll be doing more long form video content. I get so much positive feedback on my series of 20 minute+ intarsia tutorials, so I'm using those as a starting point as I produce this series. Seamed sweaters using vintage or self-improvised patterns are one of my favorite things on the planet, so I'm eager to share some seamed sweater skills with y'all super sweet folks. 😉 
.
.
Pictured: A red and white striped, short sleeved sweater knit in pieces that have yet to be seamed. They are laid out on a yellow and orange colorblock background and one sleeve is yet to be bound off. 
.
#handsoccupied #seamedsweater #kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #waldo #waldosweater #wip #yarncraft #yarn #knitting #knittersofinstagram #heidigustad #vintageknitting #sweaterknitting
Work continues this evening on my absurd punch nee Work continues this evening on my absurd punch needle pro wrestling inspired championship belt project. I’ve finished most of the front pretty quickly thanks to the @knit_picks Wool of the Andes Bulky yarn I’m using. For now, I’ve got a couple more weeks until Wrestlemania, & I’m on track to finish this in time! 
.
The biggest question I have is what to do with the “plates” - the open circles in the picture. Should I try to closely replicate the Universal Championship belt or go rogue and make it wool themed? Please advise in the comments. ☺️🧶🙏🏻🐑 
.
Pictured: The front of an in-progress punch needle project. A wooden punch needle tool with navy yarn running through it rests on top of the work. 
.
#kpambassadorsmar21 #sponsored #knitpicks #punchneedle #rugmaking #primarycolors #punchneedlerughooking #punchneedlelove #wool #wip #yarncraft #yarn #yarnaddict
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Copyright © 2021 / Foodie Pro Theme On Genesis Framework / Branding by Ink + Mortar
All Site & Shop Policies / Privacy Policy / Cookie Policy