I cleaned out my yarn stash last week. Ohhh, it was a project! And when I say “cleaned out”, I mean mostly re-arranged. I did come up with a full garbage bag of yarn for charity knitting, but other than that, I kept a lot of my stash. I like my stash. It was interesting, however, to see beautiful skeins that I had totally forgotten about. Do you keep track of what you have? There are several options for that.

1. Ravelry. You can photo and upload your stash, and it auto-fills in the details (yardage, weight, etc). I did one day of photo-ing back when I first joined Ravelry, and haven’t added to my stash page since. I didn’t like having to set aside my new yarn until I could get a photo and upload it. But I have a friend who swears by this feature on Rav and wouldn’t do anything else, so I know some people like it. (And of course I regularly use all of the other awesome features that Ravelry offfers.)

2. Electronic Lists. I’m a list person, so I did catalog a few of my favorite yarn lines in Evernote, which syncs with my phone/iPad/computer. That’s handy because I can update my list here at work or home at night. I also have my list available on my phone if I’m out shopping somewhere and need to see what I already have. There are a lot of yarn lines that I buy and use (or stash) in one or two skein batches. I don’t keep track of those on my list. But there are a few yarn lines where I do stockpile a bit (ahem) because I want to collect and use the different colors over time. These are the ones that I typed up on my lists and am glad to have.

3. Journals/Notebooks. Some people much prefer writing these things down by  hand and having a hard copy. There are all kinds of wonderful blank books out there, and I do like to buy them! I just like buying them more than I end up using them. (oops). If you like more structure than a blank book offers, you can get yourself a 3-ring notebook and print out pages to make yourself a Knitting Notebook. Here is a link to a website (Kathryn Ivy) that has some great, free, downloadable pages for a knitting notebook. You just print the pages as you need them. I have to say, I wish my grandmothers had kept a hard copy knitting journal like that. They were both knitters, and I’d love to look back and see all of the wonderful things they made over their many years of knitting, detailed in their own handwriting. You just can’t get that from an e-version, can you?

Do you keep track of your stash? Do you wish you could? What system appeals to you the most?

Sheri keepingtrackhelpstopreventdouble-purchases.
NotthatIhaveunknowinglyeverdonethatbefore….

P.S. We have a winner from this blog post! Emily in PA has won 2 skeins of the Loopy Solid Series, and the book Sock Yarn Studio by Carol Sulcoski. Thanks to all who participated in the contest!

I loved reading all of your ideas about project organization from Wednesday’s post. Thanks for sharing! (Look – I have started my Mizzle, which means I get to fill that basket up with something else now!)

- Liz is using clear shoeboxes, which I think will be great and colorful on a shelf.

- Karen found these on Amazon, which look nice, especially if you can hang them. (Although sitting on a shelf would be good, too.)

- Lots of you use ziploc bags and clear plastic tote bags.

- Melissa hid 12 of hers in brown paper bags and put them in a basket. When she is ready for the next month’s project, she picks one and gets a nice surprise!

- Carol has an entire wall in her living room filled with cubbies and baskets of yarn. Wow!!

- Ronni uses something like this on the back of a door, due to lack of wall space. I think that’s a great idea.

- Some of you don’t keep anything in physical view, but you organize your soon-to-work-on projects on Ravelry or in notebooks.

- And Lori thinks my projects look like they are in prison, waiting to be paroled, which cracked me up! (Well,  I guess they sort of are waiting to “get out” ….)

I think anything that keeps us on track with our knitting is a good thing, no matter what the system is! I hope you find something that works for you.

Today I have another good soup recipe to share with you. I made this over the holidays when we had family in, and it was a big hit with everyone. Plus – it’s easy. I like things like that! (It comes from this blog. Check out the latest post – those mushrooms look great!)

Lasagna Soup

1 1/2 lbs. Italian Sausage
2 c. chopped onions
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 Tbl. tomato paste
1 can (28 oz) fire roasted diced tomatoes
2 bay leaves
6 cups chicken stock
8 oz. pasta (corkscrew, bowtie, whatever. I used a bit more.)
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil leaves
salt and pepper to taste

8 oz. ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch of pepper

2 cups mozzarella

Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add sausage to brown. Add onions and cook until softened.  Add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes and cook for a minute.  Add tomato paste and stir well, cooking for another 3-4 minutes.

Add the diced tomatoes, bay leaves and chicken stock. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add uncooked pasta and cook until al dente. (Don’t overcook or let it simmer too long, or it will get mushy.) Stir in basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

While the pasta cooks, mix together the ricotta, parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp. salt and pinch of ground pepper.

To serve, place a dollop of the ricotta mixture in the bottom of the soup bowl, ladle hot soup over the dollop, and top with mozzarella.

Have a great weekend! Any plans? I have a few knitting projects to work on!

Sheri beautifuldayheretodayinthemountains!

Do you ever find a pattern and buy the yarn and set is aside for the time being, and then … you forget about it because something else comes along in the meantime that sidetracks you? After I did Monday’s blog post, I went over to pick out a color combo of Swan’s Island for my Sothia. (That yarn would be beautiful in a Sothia). While I was contemplating the choices and color combos, it dawned on me that I had already picked out two colors of Hand Maiden Casbah for a Sothia, back in October. (FPS). I need to be more organized with my planned patterns and yarn.

This is my new system. I got these baskets from Ballard Designs. (Also comes in a single basket, instead of these doubles.) I like them because they’re tall enough to fit patterns in there without the pattern bending in half and they’re deep enough to fit multiple skeins of yarn in each basket without scrunching or snagging them. I also wanted them it to hang on a wall (although clear baskets on a shelf could work, if you have the shelf space.) What I didn’t like is the price, but after months of searching for a cheaper alternative, I saved up and gave in. They’re on the wall in my office and I like the visual of seeing what I have in my queue. It also keeps me knitting more frequently, because I really want to get to these projects! What do I have in there?

Bottom row, left to right:

Dream in Color’s Worsted Cashmere for a Tea Leaves Cardigan.
Lorna’s Laces Pearl for a Mizzle (First Quarter Challenge)
Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted for And So Are You
Fiberphile MCN Luxe for a Batik

Top row, left to right:

Wollmeise in a multi and semi-solid, pattern undecided
Kleio Shawl, yarn undecided
Alisha Goes Around Panoply of Peacocks for Red Velvet Cupcakes
Sothia Shawl, awaiting the Hand Maiden Casbah yarn I have at home for it.

So – how do you keep track of what projects you’re making in the near future and the yarn you have set aside for them? Do you track it only on paper? Do you keep it in cubbies somewhere close by? Or is it all in your stash area, jumbled together?

Sheri toobusytoknittoday,butstillenjoyingthevisual

Edited to add: We heard you! We now have the pattern holders available here for you.

I’ve done posts in the past on storing stash yarn (including serious posts and not-so-serious posts), and on what you can do with yarn bits ‘n bobs, but I haven’t done posts on storing needles or patterns, yet. Several months ago, I got tired of my basket of misc. circular needles and decided to get organized, once and for all. I picked up three of the Namaste Circular Needle Cases and stocked them with all of my circs. (Three, because it took three to fit all of them in.) I use the green one for the 8-16″ lengths. (Green for “growing”. I figured that would help me to remember it’s the littlest lengths of needles). I use the red one for 22-32″ lengths. (Red because it’s one of my favorite colors and I knew I’d be using that one most of all.)  I use the black one for 36-60″ lengths. (Black because we had more black cases in stock at the time!) I really like the way this has worked out. The cases are compact and easy to store, and it’s easy to grab one of them if I’m going on vacation and want to take some with me.

I haven’t organized my straights and DPN’s into one good system yet. I have several small organizers that I’ve picked up over the years, but the problem is, that leaves all of my needles in different places instead of into one system. (The other problem is, I happen to like all of the different little small organizers that I have. So maybe I’ll leave that alone for the time being.) I do have misc. straights and DPN’s in vases like this, both here at Loopy and at home. I like the way it looks, even though it’s not set up for quick and easy needle-finding. If you do this, be sure to cut a piece of felt to put in the bottom of the vase, to protect the points.

The other thing I don’t really have organized are my patterns. Who has some good tips for pattern organization? With many of my sock patterns, I’ve typed up the stitch pattern into a larger font (hello eyes that can’t read tiny print like they used to) and I store them inside the page protector for that pattern. I also keep several of my favorites written up on index cards. I like the ones that this etsy artist has. And I use Dropbox between my computer and iPad for the patterns that I have scanned and saved as pdf’s, so that I have some current patterns available there as well. But I don’t have any easy way to access ALL of my sock patterns or ALL of my shawl patterns, etc.

Do you have any needle or pattern storage tips that you can share?

Sheri whothinksbeingorganizedsavesmoretimeforactualknitting

It has been a lot of fun reading your Bits and Bobs comments from last week’s contest. I got some new ideas, and I hope you did, too. Ruth shared that she makes Minions out of them, which sent me scurrying to Ravelry to see what a Minion pattern is. How cute are these? (And big ones, too!) I definitely need to make some of those, just for fun. Ania shared the pattern she’s using to make a cute toy for her daughter’s birthday. I like that pattern, too. Maybe I need to knit a few toys. And Diane and Michelle both mentioned that they have a jar of caked skeins, and I do, too. I love the look (and the jar is huge – those are full skeins of cakes) but now that they’re in there, I don’t know if I’ll ever really pull them out and knit them up. I forget they’re there (in the Loopy lobby) and … of course there’s always something new to knit anyway. Maybe what I ought to do is empty that container, keep the cakes with my regular stash, and start filling the container with more Bits and Bobs. I need a new container for them.

Several of you mentioned putting short pieces of the yarn outside on tree branches in the spring, for birds building nests. I keep meaning to do that each spring. Next spring for sure. A couple of you asked what I do with my yarn labels. I throw them away. Although I have thought about making something like this out of them, some day. Tracy asked if I ever use the bits and bobs up, or rotate them. I really don’t. They just sit there looking pretty until I need them for darning.

I also loved Teri’s idea of keeping a small jar of them on your desk at work. She said it helps her “get through the day.”  And how about spinning them into new yarn? That’s what Cassie does, and here’s a photo. Fun idea.

Thanks to everyone for sharing ideas and participating. We used the Number Randomizer to pick two winners from the comments section. We’ve sent Loopy Ewe Gift Certificates to Jody in IL and Brianna in MA. Congratulations to both of you!

Is it annoying that I bold different sentences in each paragraph, or helpful? Because I think mixed up bolding might be sorta kinda possibly irritating after awhile. Or hey – how about bolding, not bolding and italics on occasion? So many possibilities for annoyance. Not that I want to do that to you. I’m ending the post now. Have a great weekend.

Sheri whoapparentlyneedstogetoutofthewoolfumestoday

The more time I spend as a Knitter, the more … stuff … I collect. Stuff = Yarn, patterns, needles, project bags, knitting books, etc. I’m always looking for ways to maximize my knitting storage space, while keeping it organized enough to find things. I had all of my knitting things in this room in our basement (note – this is also the little corner where The Loopy Ewe started out in the beginning!). I have since moved everything upstairs to the main floor. My current knitting/spinning room was intended to be a living room when our house was built, but instead we’ve used it as a home office up until now. Now – it’s a fiber room and that’s my favorite use for this room so far. I’m still working on the perfect “look” and organization of it, but here are a few storage ideas that I use:

This closet is full of shelves. This closet holds some of my books and loose patterns (in 3 ring notebooks), most of my project bags (you know I love bags), my current projects on the needles, and all of my needle inventory. There are some skeins of yarn in there, and all of the yarn for the pairs to all of the single socks that I own. Note, I did not take the time to straighten this all up for the photo, so you get to see it as it usually looks.

Also in my fiber room, I have this cabinet that I bought just for holding yarn. I love the pretty colors of the yarn showing through the glass. I do go through this and switch the yarn around a few times a year, just to prevent fading. I also have pieces of cedar on each shelf (from here) so that the inside of the cabinet is cedar-scented to deter moths, since it’s not airtight. (I’ve never seen a moth in there, but I never want to, either.) And lest you worry about me, no, that is not all the yarn in my stash. Not by a long shot. I gave up on keeping my stash photoed and organized on my Ravelry account, but I have a new plan for keeping track of it all. I’ll show you that eventually, too.

Next to my knitting chair, I have this bin. Since I like switching up the projects I work on, you can see 4 different project bags. I really like these bags. (Note: we have new 3 AM Bags going up on the website sometime today. See the Lemons and the Owls? I snagged both of those out of this new batch. The Elephants bag was a gift from my friend Michelle in MO, and the Sheep bag was a gift from my friend Michele in Maine, who also has her cute bags on Etsy.) Currently in those bags: Wollmeise Socks, Spirit Trail Fiberworks Socks, Numma Numma Challenge Socks, and a Shibui Wrap that will have to be transferred to a larger bag as it grows. The red and blue things hold the patterns that I’m currently working on. I use these all over the place, not just for knitting patterns (for important phone lists, for reference lists here at Loopy, etc.) They’re like a super heavyweight page protector – 9 x 12 -  and I get them from Uline.

Back to the Fiber Room – I have pottery like this holding misc. needles. Since I also do that with needles here at Loopy (old needles that I have collected), I just took a photo of the ones here. (Red flower pot – bought cheap somewhere. Sheep Vase from Jennie the Potter.  The needle vase I use at home came from from my favorite Etsy pottery people.)

As I said, it’s all a work in progress. I don’t re-arrange it often (it takes away from knitting time) but it helps me to have things organized because I’m less likely to duplicate things that way. To see some other photos of knitting corners and storage ideas, check out our photo gallery. (If you have some photos of your area that you’d like to add to that gallery, we’d love to see them!)

Do you a separate area for your knitting things? Do you have any fun storage ideas you’d like to share with us?

Sheri todaythefloorofmyfiberroomiscoveredwithablockingGirasole-Yay!