Friday 28 June 2013

Handy Tip - Managing Yarn Colors


I wonder if anyone else would find this to be a handy thing?

Since I write knitting patterns, it's important to keep track of the yarn I use in my creations. The brand, type, fiber content and color. So often I have lost or otherwise misplaced the 'belly band' (the slip of paper that comes with the yarn that tells you all about it) of the yarn I am working with, especially if the yarn colors are designated as numbers. Cascade 220 is a perfect example.

One way to identify colors of yarn is to order sample cards from the company that makes the yarn. The drawback to this is, not every company offers these for sale to the general public. The other drawback is that many companies continually offer new shades of yarn, which would then render one with an incomplete sample set.

So what I have started doing, is each time I unwind a skein of yarn and make it into a pretty ball using my swift and ball winder, I attach a sample of the yarn to the belly band, then roll up the belly band and insert it into the center of the ball. Then toss it into the stash.

 I use a little penguin-shaped hole punch to make the hole.
So even if the belly band gets separated from the ball, I'll always have a record of what each yarn is because it's attached to the band.

Thing is, now I have all these belly band laying around with bits of yarn attached to them...and being the neat-freak I am, I have to figure out a way to organize them. Maybe just stuffed into a ziploc bag?  Thrown into the stash box with the yarn?

Anyway, it's just an idea and something I do. Anyone else have any yarn management tips to share?

1 comment:

  1. Wow, how clever! Wish I had thought of that, I have lots of skeins with no label, and lots of labels with no skein. I will pin this to my Pinterest board on knitting techniques and how-to's.
    I love organizing my stash on Ravelry, saves lots of time and duplicate shopping.

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