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From tangles to messes, yarn can really start to be a hassle. Keeping your yarn in good shape is the key to great crochet projects! From what I’ve learned over the years, yarn maintenance is all about the storage. Read about How to Store Your Yarn so that you can avoid any unwanted crochet mishaps!
Keeping Your Yarn in Perfect Shape:
1. Wind it up?
For a lot of crocheters, sometimes yarn starts piling up faster than you can crochet. When your collection starts to grow, yarn care and storage become a vital part of the crochet process. Many people buy a hank of yarn and immediately start rolling it in a ball, which is understandable – balls of yarn are convenient and easy to store. However, this may not be the best option when it comes to preserving your yarn quality. In a ball, the yarn on the inside is compressed by tension, but the outside yarn remains intact. You may find that your yarn has random stretched out pieces and thinner pieces because the fibers were squished.
Solution: Don’t wind your yarn into a ball until you are ready to start a project. Keep your hanks in a safe spot so that the yarn remains intact. When it comes time to make a ball, do it yourself using this tutorial:
How to Make a Center Pull Ball of Yarn
Here’s a video showing how to wind a center pull ball of yarn without any special tools:
2. Tangled?
The bane of every crocheter’s existence is a pile of tangled yarn. There a million ways to keep your yarn from tangling, many of which can be done using things you already have at home! Take a look at some of these innovative ways people use to avoid an irritable mess of yarn.
Make an Easy Yarn De-tangler out of an old plastic container! It’s perfect for working a project with multiple colors.
If you’ve ever taken apart a project because you missed a stitch, or something just didn’t seem right, you’ve probably run into the problem of frogged yarn. Keep all that frogged yarn untangled and use it for something else with this nifty Frogged Yarn Trick.
These don’t strike your fancy? Check out way more ideas to keep your yarn untangled HERE!
3. Keep it Organized!
Aside from keeping your yarn in good condition, it’s also good to keep it nice and neat. Sometimes you just have too much yarn to crochet, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a mess. I love these nifty organization tips because they not only keep things clean, but they also look cool!
Try out this cool “wall of yarn” storage idea: DIY Vertical Yarn Storage,
OR
Give the Wine Rack Yarn Storage method for an artsy, polished look.
These not for you? Check out a ton more yarn organization tips right HERE!
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What’s your best yarn storage trick?
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I use zippered, clear-front, hanging sweater storage bags and shoe storage bags. I have 4 of the sweater storage bags and 1 of the shoe storage bags. The sweater bags contain 6-8 shelves each, which in turn can store 6 to 8 skeins of yarn each. The shoe bag has 10 shelves. I can sort by brand, weight, color, etc. It’s easy to see at a glance how many skeins of each that I have, and it keeps the yarn clean and dust-free and away from my cats. The shoe storage bag is used for crochet threads, small quanitities of leftover yarn, and trims. I use foam hair rollers (48 to a pkg in 4 different sizes) for bobbins of small quantities of yarn. Remove the foam and wrap the yarn around the center post. If the center post is not free spinning, slide a piece of a drinking straw over the center post before wrapping and the yarn will unwind easily; while the roller clip keeps it neatly held in place.
Hi,
I use the clear zippered packaging that sheets and comforters are sold in. They are also a perfect size to fit any ongoing project that you have. Since they are see through, you can stack then in a cupboard and always see exactly what is in them.
Back when I had a separate craft room I had 2 4′ bookcases in my walk-in closet for my yarn. I stacked them according to color so that I could see one end of the skein. Incomplete skeins were rolled into balls (I use a prescription bottle to wind the yarn around, I put one end inside the bottle and fasten the cap, then wind the yarn. When I’m done I remove the cap, then pop the ball off – perfect center-pull ball! NOT my original idea, got it from Vickie Howell when she was on Knitty Gritty!) and put in a box to await the scrap-buster projects.
lovely idea – i am going to give it a try!
I’m O.C.D. and I have to ball my yarn as soon as possible ( I’ve even been known to on the way home.) My “tip” to keep it neat and tidy is using rubber bands. It keeps it from unraveling and its to find the end, because its right by the rubber band 🙂
I have stack of milk crates and plastic produce crates to store my yarn, and those are stacked inside a small closet, and on the shelf above them. they are somewhat sorted by type/fiber and colour.
I keep my stash in Space Saver Bags. When I decide what yarn to use for a project I put the pattern and yarn into a clear plastic zippered bag that sheets come in with the pattern showing through the front. That way I can just pick the next project and know I have the correct yarn and the correct amount of yarn.
Sherry,
Do you vacuum our all the air from the bag or do you leave a little air in the bag so the yarn can “breathe”?
When I am working a Fair Isle pattern, I put my yarns in empty plastic ice cream cartons and make a good sized hole through I threat the strand. These protect the individual skeins and make me pay attention to strands being crossed over. I also put current and near-future projects in clear plastic bags so that yarn, instructions, and notions unique to the project are all together.
When I am working a Fair Isle pattern, I put my yarns in empty plastic ice cream cartons and make a good sized hole through I threat the strand. These protect the individual skeins and make me pay attention to strands being crossed over. I also put current and near-future projects in clear plastic bags so that yarn, instructions, and notions unique to the project are all together.
I have stacks of labeled 18g bins, and use Ravelry’s notebook to log my yarn and know which bin any particular yarn is in so I don’t have to go searching for hours. 🙂 I use cheap ziploc bags to keep partially used skeins tangle free inside the bins.
When I’m carrying balls of yarn in a tote bag to work on projects while waiting at music lessons, etc., I put them in Ziploc bags and snip a tiny piece out of one of the bottom corners to allow yarn to be pulled through to crochet with. The yarn stays clean, doesn’t unwind all over inside the bag, and doesn’t tangle. Yay!
I store my yarn in a 3 drawer file cabinet. I stand yarn on end so it doesn’t get mashed, it stays clean. and I can easily see what colors I have. Plus I have room for my crochet needles!!!!
I live in an apartment and have a lot of yarn. I bought hanging sweater or even shoe bags that wrap around a pole/closet rod. Since I do not use the bathtub in my second bathroom, I put up a tension rod and hung the bags with the yarn in them. I have about 4 or 5 bags. You don’t see them as I pull the shower curtain closed and then when I need yarn it is readily available.