After months and months of intense pandemic knitting, I have finally gotten around to organizing my ever-growing stash. One issue remains: What do I do with all the care instructions for the various projects I’ve already knit? I’m envisioning something where I keep a scrap of the yarn with the instructions so I can easily connect the care instructions with the project, but I don’t know how to contain all this. A notebook? A box? Any suggestions on this topic welcome, as well as general info on how you store your stash. Mine is in plastic bags in various drawers, but I still worry about moths. Many thanks!
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Oh, this is such a great topic and I can’t wait to hear what others do.
What I wish I had done all these years is to have kept a binder of my working copy of the pattern, with all my notes and changes, a label, a bit of yarn or swatch, and a photo of the item on whomever it was made for.
I know it’s never too late, and perhaps one day I will realize this dream 
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My stash is in bins (many many bins) sorted by weight.
I keep thinking I should further sort by color, yardage, etc. but would need a lot of alone time to make that work.
I have not kept the instructions for most of the yarn in my already knit sweaters, but I sometimes look it up on Ravelry and do a search, but I mostly hand wash everything but socks anyway. (not super helpful here I know).
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This is how I’ve organized mine — I have 7”x9” notebooks with page protectors that fit in them. I put the band or tag in the page protector along with a photo of the item. The pink you see on the side is a post it that is being a tab; the notebooks are divided into sections such as Hats, Hands (mittens/gloves/handwarmers), Blankets, etc.
If I gift something I’ve made, I either include one of the bands for care instructions or I write them out for the person.
There is also paper sized for these notebooks, and I use it to make notes about some of the projects or yarns. For example, I bought several balls of a yarn, but the hand is scratchy and rough so it is not good for anything that is to be worn. However, it felts beautifully and looks gorgeous. I noted that and put it before the only project I made that wasn’t felted.
I hope this helps!
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My stash is all recorded in Ravelry which organizes it really well. You can look up by weight or color or fiber… etc. Then I store in drawers (or bins) according to weight which I mark outside with tape which just says what weight yard is in each drawer. I have a TON of yarn so not all is connected to a pattern but the patterns I hope to knit are in a notebook along with a suggestion for the yarn I wanted to use. I think its fun to explore my stash before I make a final decision on what yarn I use for a project.
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I keep the ballband and a scrap of the yarn and place all of them are in a zip lock bag that resides in a drawer.
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I do what Nell wishes she had done! Ballband, scrap of yarn taped to my working copy of the pattern in a 3-ring binder under the tab FO. However, I don’t have a copy of a picture attached. That being said, I just picked up knitting again in Jan 2018 so I don’t have a lifetime of work done;) As for my yarn, it lives (mostly!) in these stackable, snap together cubes that I just luv💗
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I do pretty much the same as @mmouse15 except my notebooks are a bit smaller, about 5x7. (I have separate notebooks for WIPs and FOs and tend to keep at least a few pages, if not the entire notebook, with an active WIP to make note keeping easier.) I also use these notebooks for notes about the project and changes/adjustments I made to the pattern and a reference as to where the original pattern is (book, MDK Field Guide, etc.) My yarn itself is stored in plastic bins, divided by weight, sometimes fiber, and with some dried rosemary sprigs in an organza or muslin bag to ward off moths. I label my bins by writing on the BACK of a sticky note and sticking it to the inside of the bin so that it doesn’t accidentally come off.
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I forgot about the organization part of the question!
I keep my stash in sealed plastic bins with post-it notes telling me the types of projects in each bin. I like the idea of the back of the post-it note, @The_Happy_Papi ! I tend to buy yarn for specific projects, not just to have, so my stash is different than many.
The projects that are in my Ravelry queue are in project bags with the pattern, most are not wound, and only the active ones have needles in them. I generally have 3-5 active projects at any time. One will be complicated, one will be portable, and one will be large but easy to knit and is usually what I work on late at night.
My patterns are in page protectors in notebooks, divided out by pattern type and if I liked or would remake the pattern. I make notes on the pattern as I knit, so they look pretty messy by the end. However, if I remake one, the pattern tells me everything I need to know. MDK patterns are either printed out, or notes are put on post-its and stuck in the field guide.
Honestly, I have post-it notes that range from tiny to huge and I use them liberally, since I also have very large humans and very tiny humans in my family, and I end up altering patterns to fit them. There’s a lot of math involved, and I keep track of it because I often need to make things 2-3X larger/smaller than the pattern’s biggest size.
In the end, I think organization is what fits your needs! I need to write things down, and I need visual reminders, so my organizational methods tend to leans towards meeting those needs!
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Those sticky notes are the best, aren’t they? My family THINKS they have banned me from buying any more. Never gonna happen.
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The_Happy_Papi, I love the idea of the backwards sticky note on the inside. Brilliant!
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Wow, well done, very impressive!
I like these! Where did you get them?
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Thank you!
Thanks, will check into it
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I did a spreadsheet with all my stash added by weight, colour, amount/yardage and any ideas for what I’m (eventually) going to do with it. The final column tells me where it is and it’s all stored in plastic bags in large bins, before working it’s way up to the “next on needles” container. I hadn’t thought of using Ravelry, thanks for that, and also a good idea to add washing instructions to my spreadsheet. Thanks for all the ideas.
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I have been thinking of the same thing myself. What I plan to do is tape a sample of the yarn to an index card. Then tape or glue the ball band washing directions to the same card. This way I can keep the cards in a plastic bag, or in a in a little file box (like the kind used for recipes). Also, if it’s a gift I can actually give it to the recipient, so they will know how to wash the garment I made for them.
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We did some work on our house a few years back which forced me to “face” my stash. Putting it on ravelry has been super useful. It was an effort but totally worth it.
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Great idea, thx