Organising the disorder

    Some days ago I told you that I was organising my stuff again. If you knit or crochet you will know that we don’t buy yarns as we need them for new projects, so we always have waiting yarns to be used. Sometimes we already know what they are going to be used for when we buy them, but many times we buy them just because we like the colour, or the texture…and we keep them aside until we find what to do with them.

   

   So some days ago I reorganised all my stuff. And some of you asked me how I deal with this, so I’m going to tell you how I keep my knitting and crocheting material in order. Besides these, I have sewing material, but I keep it apart. I try to keep order into the mess, but you know that universe tends to chaos…

    

    On the one hand I have the needles and hooks. I have knitting needles and crochet hooks, and they are made from different materials. I also have yarn needles to weave in ends and join pieces.

   

• Crochet hooks are kept in different cases. I have a leather case that came with a hooks set I bought. It contains steel and aluminium hooks. It’s nice because you can keep them ordered by size, and thus it is easier to find the one you need. I added some hooks that were not initially in the case in the free spaces, but it is already full. Besides this one, I have two cylindrical cases. One was property of my grandmother and contains some of her hooks. They all are thin, because my grandmother was able to crochet even with sewing thread. And the other case is made of plastic and was intended to be a toothbrush case. I keep here the thicker hooks, like the one used for crochet chunky. (I still haven’t found the utility of crochet hunky, I find the finished work too heavy.) 

• Knitting needles are also kept in different cases. I have two bamboo needles sets, one longer than the other. I sewed two cases for them to keep them ordered and to prevent them from deformation. Depending on the yarn you are using, bamboo is a good material for knitting. I still haven’t tried the thinner bamboo needles, but they seem easy to be broken. I also have two cases like the ones you can find at a haberdashery. I keep there the plastic, steel and aluminium needles, the thicker ones in one of them and the thinner ones in the other. I still have to find how to order the two point needles and the circular needles. I only have three two point needles sets, and two of them are still unused, so I keep them in their original cases. I have a complete set of bamboo circular needles, that I bought by internet fearing that the plastic wire was not going to stay in its place because they were quite cheap. They are ok for the moment, but I don’t know how to save keep them. I have them all together in a plastic bag, but this doesn’t seem to me the best place to save them. If you have any idea for a case to keep them, I would be very grateful if you share it with us. 

Circular needles. Do you have any idea of how to keep them?

• And finally, yarn needles are kept in a case that was intended to be a travel manicure set case. I put them there because in the set small scissors were included, and therefore I use the case as travel case when I took my projects with me. But the scissors broke and I haven’t still found another ones fitting the case.

Knitting needles and crochet hooks.

    Besides the needles, I have the yarns. The only caution to store them is to keep them in a dry place, away from direct sunlight if possible not to lose the colour (this can be achieved if your storage is opaque), and it is never futile to put something to chase clothes moth away. Mothballs are toxic, but there are some herbs like lavender that chase them away giving good smell.
   

    I bought a big box at Ikea saying to myself: “This is big enough to contain all my yarns. Once I fill it, I will not buy more...” Naïve! So I have now in this box all the acrylic yarns, wool, mixed composition yarns and unknown composition yarns (you knit, so keep this yarns I am not using just in case…). I have another box, the one I have had to buy this time, were I have almost all the cotton yarns. Almost, because the thinner ones, the ones that are usually used for crocheting or embroidering, are kept in another box.

First group of boxes. The white one is the one I bought at Ikea.

         And I have some other boxes with other DIY materials. Fabric, felt, eva rubber, accessories, rings and balls for the crochet necklaces (which ones? It is a surprise!). The french knitter, the pompom maker. The magazines and patterns, that hopefully are not many, because I mostly have them in digital storage.    

Second group of boxes and folders.

         So I end up with a lot of material that take up quite a noteworthy space. Wouldn’t it be superb to have a knitting and sewing room? Or am I the only one being envious of those giant wardrobes with a lot of materials perfectly ordered?