Yarn – The Crochet Architect

I’ve known that I need to get a handle on my yarn stash for a couple of years now. The last time I purged some yarn was 3 years ago when we lived in our previous home. A few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge to purge some of my yarn/thread stash! Boy, does it feel good to have a more manageable stash now!

I started with 1 ½ closets full of yarn and crochet thread. I had a total of 23 plastic tubs full (or partially full) of yarn/thread. My goal was to go down to 10 tubs, but was that realistic? Nope! So I decided to amend my goal to have all my yarn/thread fit into just one closet and eliminate the other half closet full. Now that was an attainable goal that I was able to accomplish! I think downsizing my yarn by 1/3 was a great goal!

This was my yarn stash before purging:

Here is my reorganized yarn stash in both halves of my one closet after purging:

Here are some extra photos of my yarn stash in the purging process in my living room:

If you’re ready to purge/downsize your yarn/thread stash, here are some tips and suggestions to help you:

-Make sure you’re in the right frame of mind to downsize your stash (this is the most important point because if you’re not in the right frame of mind, you won’t be successful).

-Make sure you have lots of time (it took me 6-8 hours, so most of one day).

-Make sure you have plenty of room to work in. I used the living room to look at all the yarn and crochet thread. This gave me a good idea of how much stash I actually had! Putting it all in one area is a real eye-opener!!! The yarn can really accumulate over the decades of crocheting/knitting!

Ask yourself these questions:

-What do I know I want to keep for use in upcoming projects or designs?

-What do I want to keep for later projects or designs?

-What do I think I’ll need for later?

-What do I know I don’t want?

-How long has this yarn been in my stash? Why aren’t I using it?

-What fibers do I enjoy working with and which do I not like/enjoy?

-What colors do I like?

-What colors will I use/wear?

-What colors and fibers would my project recipients use/wear?

-What type of projects do I typically make?

-What type of yarn do I use for these projects?

-How much yarn do I use for these projects?

-Do I need multiple skeins of the same color or small amounts of different colors?

-What can/will I reasonably use in my remaining lifetime?

-Should I sell or donate the yarn and thread I don’t want (or a combination of them)?

-How should I organize my smaller stash (according to fibers, yarn weights, etc)?

-Do I need some smaller tubs/containers for some of my yarn categories?

To help make a decision about some of the yarns/threads to keep or purge, look up the yarn on Ravelry, and specifically the projects made from the yarn, to get an idea of how you can use the yarn. If nothing speaks to you, purge that yarn! Someone else will undoubtedly enjoy using it.

If you’re uncertain about what you want to keep, don’t give away or sell any of the yarn for about a week. This will give you time to change your mind and move something from the give/donate/sell area to the keep area or vice versa. I changed my mind on a few yarns this past week and I’m glad I waited to give/sell the purged yarn!

When I was done with destashing, I ended up reorganizing my smaller stash into some different tubs. I used to have them separated into my personal stash (according to yarn weight) and my business stash (because the yarn manufacturers sent me the yarn for free to use for my designs). I had tubs for different manufacturers so I wouldn’t mix different manufacturers’ yarn in the same design (this is a no-no when designing for publication in books and magazines). But now that I’m not designing for publication anymore (and haven’t been for a number of years), separating them into different manufacturers isn’t that important. What I decided now is to separate them into the yarns/threads I’m going to use for my self-published designs and the yarns/threads I’m going to use for my own personal enjoyment projects. I also sub-separated them into wool/animal fibers or acrylic/cotton so I could keep the animal fibers separated and put a lavender sachet in those tubs to help control bugs eating my wool yarn!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at my 2024 yarn destashing project and how I organized my smaller stash. How do you organize your yarn stash? Do you have a larger stash than you can realistically use in your lifetime? What suggestions do you have for purging and reorganizing yarn/thread stash?

Happy crocheting!

Susan

I’ve always wanted to travel to Japan and last month, that dream came true! I LOVE Japanese crochet patterns and I wanted to visit the country where all this crochet loveliness originated! Since our youngest son was working in Japan for the first 3 months of this year, my husband and I seized the opportunity to travel there while he was still in the country. He’s back now (and we’re back, too), so it’s time I shared about the great crochet fun I had there (I’ll write another blog post about the other fun we had there being tourists and seeing some of their beautiful country)!

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting the Nihon Vogue Publishing Corporation main office, their Vogue Academy and their Keito Yarn Shop, all in Tokyo! I arranged for this tour several months ago through email with Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda, who works for them. He set up a fabulous tour of their 3 facilities! I had an absolutely wonderful time, especially at their corporate office and their Vogue Academy.

At the corporate office, which has 4 floors, I met several people: Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda, who I had been emailing for several months, Mr. Kenichi Funyu, who is an Adobe Illustrator extraordinaire and an editor at Nihon Vogue, Ms. Akiko Taniyama, who is the chief editor of Keitodama and Mr. Nobuaki Seto, the president of Nihon Vogue Corp! I felt like royalty there! They showed me all around their corporate office, including their Keitodama editing area. They brought out samples from the newest issue of Keitodama magazine (Vol. 181), too! They treated my husband and I to lunch in their cafeteria. Mr. Seto, the president, even showed us his office, along with several keepsakes he has; one made from his father’s ties! And he showed us their conference room with a bookshelf that runs from corner to corner along one long wall, filled with every issue of books and magazines that Nihon Vogue has published since the beginning of the company over 60 years ago (in 1954)! Wow! I was in crochet (and knit) heaven!

My husband and I with the Nihon Vogue staff

Books and magazines in Nihon Vogue editing department

Nihon Vogue bookshelf wall with every issue they’ve published!

After touring the corporate office and having lunch there, Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda took my husband and I to their Vogue Academy. This is where their certified instructors teach all kinds of crafts, such as crochet, knitting, porcelain painting, embroidery, quilting, sewing and lots more (even cooking classes)! They have 8 locations in Japan with 1,350 courses and 18,000 students! Wow! Now that’s serious teaching! The Tokyo location, which we visited, has 13 classrooms. Mr. Hiroki Hashimoto gave us the tour at Vogue Academy. He showed us every class that was in session and we could see what the students were making in each classroom. It was so much fun, especially in the 2 crochet/knitting classes! The students had finished or were working on garments in both classes. I was amazed at their skills and their projects!

The Tokyo Vogue Academy even has a store there with yarns, books, and lots of tools/supplies that students can purchase. I showed Mr. Hashimoto my 2 favorite Nihon Vogue books from their store and he was so nice to give me those 2 books!

After the Vogue Academy tour, Mr. Toshiharu Tsuda took us to the Keito Yarn shop. It was a somewhat small shop, but it was laid out very nicely. They had yarns from all over the world, making it hard to decide what I wanted to buy there! I bought 2 balls of Lana Gatto Nuovo Jaipur, a 100% combed cotton yarn, which is made in Croatia and 1 skein of Hasegawa, a silk/mohair blend, which is made in Japan! I look forward to knitting and/or crocheting with both of these yarns!

All in all, that day was magical for me! I LOVED meeting the Nihon Vogue employees, who were all very friendly and kind. I LOVED seeing their office, academy and yarn shop! I was surrounded with yummy goodness everywhere I turned! Their corporate office has a main lobby with tables covered in crocheted doilies and centerpieces! The entrance to their corporate office has a spinning wheel, which is part of their logo! And everywhere I turned, there were beautiful, inspirational things to see, from quilts on the walls to published books and magazines! That is a day I will never forget for the rest of my life!!!

Crochet centerpiece in Nihon Vogue lobby

In addition to the Nihon Vogue tour, I also visited 2 craft stores and a 100 Yen store while we were in Tokyo, where I purchased yarns and crochet books! At the Yuzawaya store in Kamata (3 floors high), I bought a Disney crochet book for 1,111 yen and 3 skeins/hanks of cotton and cotton/acrylic yarn, both made in China. At the Okadaya store in Sinjuku (6 floors high), I bought 2 Nihon Vogue crochet books for 1,200 yen and 1,100 yen. At the 100 Yen store (called “Can Do”), I bought 4 skeins of cotton yarn made in China for 100 yen each! The exchange rate is currently around .009 yen to 1 dollar, so 1,000 yen is about $9.00. So as you can see, the yarn and books were quite reasonably priced!