Step 1: Go to supermarket and purchase a range of ziplock bags. There will be a range to choose from - some with "zips" and some you just squeeze together. A word of warning: some ziplocks are better than others. My bag of preference is made by Glad. Good sizes, zipper thingy rarely fails and they have a writing panel on them if you wish to label your yarn. They also come in an "easy to dispense" box with a zipper flap (how much fun is that!)
Step 2: Keep ziplock bags in convenient place near your yarn stash, for ease of use.Step 3: Each time you purchase yarn, ensure you select an appropriately sized ziplock bag for storage. Label, or not, as you wish.
To give you a feel for size:
A small bag (sandwich size) will hold two small skeins of sock yarn.
A medium (lunch) size will hold around 4 50g skeins/balls
A large bag will hold up 8-10 50g skeins/balls of yarn.
My preference is not to mix the yarn in a bag - one type of yarn (eg 4ply, 8ply, sock etc), one bag. Different yarns, different bag.
Step 4: Carefully pack yarn into selected bag, ensuring labels are (as far as possible) all facing same way and so that you can, depending on the structure of the yarn label, read the colour, dyelot and gauge information without needing to open the bag.
Step 5: Pack bagged yarns into yarn storage cupboard/chest of drawers.
Step 6: Gloat at your level of organisation. Do not tell anyone that the rest of your stash is piled up in plastic bags in the corner of your stash/junk room, waiting for the never-to-arrive day when they will be bagged and packed.
I know this is breaking the rule in step 3, but these are set aside, in their ziplock bags for a special purpose - the draw will be conducted tonight, so there's still time to leave a comment on this post! (And ziplock bag will be chucked in as well!)
Tomorrow: Results of the draw
Friday: Part II: The proper use of ziplock bags in organising your WIPS
22 comments:
Funny! My "method" is similar to what you alluded to in Step 6.... Except I DID buy the glad bags. And the unopened box looks very nice sitting next to everything else...
LOL!! I feel so incredibly informed now. I am tempted to go and buy a truck load of bags at lunch time but that requires time to sit down and do the bloody organising.
Any advice on that?
Oh and do you have odd balls, like bit of left overs etc in bags too? Or are they in the corner you mentioned?
I can only aspire to this level of organisation (and I do!). Very impressive. Can't wait to get home and apply the RoseRed Standard of Stash Systematisation!
As a long-time user of ziplock bags for many other purposes, I can give the thumbs down to those with the actual zipper - the bag gets caught and rips and it just ends in tears. Not pretty.
I love zip locks - I have found the big ones and carry arounf my travelling scarf in a big one. My monkey socks live in a sandwich one - I pull out the knitting and leave the ball inside, part close it and (because I didn't have a ball winder and wound the whole skein off my feet into a big ball (not centre pull) the ball happily pulls out of the bag gently without rolling all over the floor and collecting dust bunnies and cat fur! Only my yummiest wool gets filed this way. Most of the stash is in those big clear square plastic bags with a zip that blankets and quilts come in - one is sock wools and 4 ply, two are 8 ply - DK, One is chunky wools (aran, 12 ply etc) and I keep hoping we need something else that comes in those! BTW Love your stash!
Absolutely mind boggling - I am truly not worthy. Can't stay to chat - off to the supermarket to purchase GLAD ziplocks.
you totally crack me up girl! :)
wow, I like the way you're storing your yarns. And I'd kill for that purple yarn in your last photo. Very nice!
You know, the last box of Glad ziplocks I bought for stash purposes..as soon as I 'zipped' them up, the plastic split all the way along the zip, yep- all of them!
I felt like sending a letter along the lines of "Dear Mr. Glad, Your bags are crap" etc... ;)
But it's about..oh..number 278 on the "things to do" list so it will have to wait. :)
I miss Glad ziplocks, nothing here meets the quality of the zip in them!
Maybe I should actually do this now, before my wool gets out of hand. I keep buying wool, and I've only knitted ten rows!
Going to try and blog my knitting now - you and Bells and my sister in law have me inspired!
Oh, I do love a snap lock bag. Thanks for the help!
Oh my goodness - what a wonderful idea!! I'm only a newbie and I already have a knitting mess! I will definitely be stealing this method!
I love love love Glad Ziplocks! I use them for everything from beads and other crafty bits and bobs to homemade pumpkin soup for the freezer! Your yarns are beeeeautiful!
What? No 'squish the air out of the bag before you zip' so you can get more 'stash' in your stash drawer? LOL
So organized! It gives me hope...sorta. lol
Excellent!! Fine job you should be so proud. You can probably get more yarn in there now!
You do know that sandwich bags work great for knitting with several colors at once?
Oh, and sandwich size are also perfect for snipits of Koigu leftover from a project. Even those pieces no more than 6 inches long! Yikes, but I am not kidding. I LOVE Koigu. I'll do something artistic with it!!
Hooray for Zip-lock!
Hooray for ziplock bags, storers of all manner of things. Don't forget the super sized bags for putting woollens in storage when they are not being worn.
MWAHAHAHAHAHA! LOVE IT! I particularly love the bag with Koigu in it!!
Who could NOT love the ziplock methodology of stash organisation after reading your tutorial?
Excellent fun ...
I use Glad Ziplocks to protect books from turning yellowish, shoes and small bags from dust.
Oh and mouse, headphone, earphones, ac power plugs, anything I can think of that makes it easy for me to go through my boxes without hassle.
I also use it to place marinated meat before putting in the fridge. Saves space. :)
Thanks for tutorial of use ziplock bags for saving a yarn. Great idea.
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