Well my friends, we've finally made it to the yarn portion of our challenge! This is going to be quite time consuming and possibly difficult, maybe even painful at times. However, space is too precious to be wasted on yarn we no longer need or love. When this challenge is over I want you too look at your yarn and have it inspire you and fill you with joy! Are you ready to get your stash in shape?!? 

To start this weeks challenge bring out ALL of your yarn (not including WIP's), think of all of the places it might be hiding: Yarn/project bags, closets, under your bed, by the couch, in your car...  Gather your yarn in a place where you can leave a mess, this challenge will take all week if not a little longer. This project definitely falls under the "it gets worse before it gets better" category, but in the end your are going to be glad you did it! 

Now that all of your yarn is in one place, take a picture. In order to be considered a participant in our challenge and possibly win the prize you must have a before and after picture. If you don't want anyone to know who the stash belongs to, we will make sure it remains anonymous. 
As you pull out your yarn start thinking about:

• Which yarn you get excited about and still love vs. the yarn you are not so crazy about anymore.
• How do you wish to store your yarn: In a closet, on a shelf or in a cabinet, by color, fiber and/or weight (check out our Pintirest Board for ideas)
• Is a particular yarn earmarked for a specific project, pattern or person?

Why is it important to have all of your yarn out?

• It is hard to organize what you can't see. 
• Seeing all of your yarn laid out in front of you may inspire you to start choosing a new color pallet or fiber content. 
• You may realize you have more or less than you thought you did.
•  You may also find some hidden gems you have forgotten all about.

As we did with our WIP's, patterns and tools, we will start deciding which yarn to keep, which to give away and which to throw out. You will need at least 3 bins (Keep, give away & toss). You may decide to divide your keep pile further: will use- have a pattern, will use- no pattern, for donation projects, etc. You may also do the same with the give away pile: Yarn swap or donate. 

Destashing is very hard, you start thinking about how much money went into your stash, you got some of the yarn as a gift or even that there is the perfect pattern out there just waiting to be found. But think about how it would feel to look at your prized stash and know you love each and every skein, you can find what you need with ease and you have regained space in your house (not to mention getting you're husband/family to stop teasing you ...even if it's just for a little while). 

Keep: You should keep any yarn that:

• You really like and that brings you joy
• You have at pattern picked out or a person that the yarn is intended for
• You are inspired by the yarn
• You know you will use (be honest with yourself!)
• It brings a happy memories
• You would like to use in donation projects

The point of having a stash is not only to have yarn on hand for a pattern you have found, but I would say more importantly it brings you pleasure. I have quite a bit of my grandmother's crochet thread that I have displayed in my house. I will never use this thread, but it brings me great happiness when I look at. You will also notice yarn for donation projects, at Chix with Stix, we often have Community Care Projects in which we ask you to help by making miscellaneous items. It is always good to keep a few skeins on hand for these types of projects; this yarn would also be great for lifelines & provisional cast-on's and yarn bombings. 

Give away: You may have fallen out of love with some of your yarn, but it may be perfect for someone else.  Place these types of yarn in the "give away" pile. Grab a bag, box or bin and put these along with your patterns, tools and WIP's that you are wanting to trade and set aside for our swap. 
Let it go if:

• You really liked it when you bought it, but now you're just not liking it anymore. 
• You went through a phase (sock, lace, color, etc.) and have burned yourself out working with that type of yarn. 
• You have left overs from a finished project and you can't see yourself using it.
• You've realized you don't enjoy working with a particular weight, fiber or color, it may even split too much for your liking.
• It was a gift from someone. Yarn is a very personal thing, it is sweet that someone thought of you, but realistically they don't know your fiber preferences, the weight of yarns you like and now that yarn is taking up valuable space. Not to mention you feel a little guilty when you look at the unused yarn setting on the shelf. Let someone who will love this yarn have it, the best thing is that the gift will be used and enjoyed by someone.
• Do you have yarn from your last move that you were uncertain you wanted to keep and it's still sitting in your stash? It's time to let it go!
• You purchased yarn for a particular pattern only to realize you didn't get enough. Try to find the remaining yarn, if you can't either find a project for it or swap it. 
• Possibly set a time limit: I've had this yarn (x) years unused, will I actually use it? 

Toss: Yes, I said it, actually throw away yarn!!! 

• If you have small bits left overs not big enough to make anything, put them in the trash. Alternatively, you could use natural fibers in cake style bird feeders so birds & squirrels can use them in their nests. 
• Toss yarn that has matted, felted or knotted. If you have a tangled mess that is impossible to unwind, there is no since in leaving it hanging around, it is unusable. 
  

We have our work cut out for us this week! Next week we will focus on organizing and putting away the yarn we do keep.  Let me know if you need help deciding whether or not to keep a yarn. 

Let us know in the comments below your criteria for keeping, giving and tossing your yarn.

It is time to move our knitting and crochet into the twenty-first century and have access to our library virtually anywhere we go! Imagine you are at the yarn shop and you have found the perfect yarn for a project you've been wanting to make and for the life of you, you can't remember how many yards it calls for. Then you remember you've stored all of your patterns on a cloud based service, you pull out your smartphone and with a few taps there is your pattern. Not only do you have all the information on the supplies needed, but you could sit down right there and start working on it! If you are like me you probably already have a ton of patterns saved all over the your computer: bookmarks, downloads, Ravelry and in emails just to name a few. This week we are going to get those all organized and situated in a way that they will be easy to find at our fingertips.

Which ever storage solution you choose, keep in mind:

• Take your time, this doesn't have to be completed this week; don't get overwhelmed with the amount of work to be done. If you find you really like making shawls, focus on getting those organized first. You may find that you only need to have those organized and not worry with the blankets, hats and so on.
• Don't forget to check the bookmarks on your browser. See if any of them can be downloaded and added to your digital libraries. If they are not downloadable, make sure to label them well so you will know what you have when you are looking through your bookmarks. 
• If you store your patterns on your desktop only, please make a back up on an USB drive. I'd hate for something to happen to your computer and you've lost all of your patterns! 
•  If you have questions, please ask. I will be happy to help in any way I can. 

Are you going to use a digital library, if so what service do you plan on using? 

Whether you have a stack of magazines & books, a pile of print outs or even a ton of digital files, we all have a mess of patterns and books, it comes with the territory! We are going to go through all of these and whittle them down to what we want to keep, give away or toss. This may be a time consuming process, so we will focus on our digital libraries and cataloging our patterns next week. However time consuming, I'm sure we all can agree that it is a project that is worth while. 

Single Patterns:

• Get rid of unwanted patterns. Take out all of your single printed patterns, as you go through them ask yourself: Are you still interested in this pattern? Have you made it and know you will not be making it again? Is it a duplicate (is there another copy in a book, magazine or on your computer)? Clear up space by putting these unwanted items in either the toss or give away piles.
• Sort the keepers. Think of how you wish to categorize your patterns: Knit, Crochet with sub-categories: Sweaters, Blankets/Afghans, Hats, etc.;  you could sort them by designer/publisher; you could also sort them in the order you would like to work them in. The choices are unlimited, just find which works best for you and get to separating them out.  
• Store your patterns. By knowing how you want your patterns categorized you will know how to store them in a way that i convenient for you. Some examples of storing your single patterns are: 3 ring binders with pocket protectors, Hanging Files, Magazine Files (recommended for smaller collections), Expanding Files or you could can them in and add them to your digital library. When choosing your filing system for your patterns, keep in mind any space issues you may have, how easily you wish to retrieve  your patterns and how you will be able to keep your system organized and up to date.

Books & Magazines:

• Gather your stash. Make sure you have ALL of your books and magazines, check project bags, your living room and desk. Begin to sort by category, first books, magazines, booklets, etc. Then by type: How to, Stitch dictionary, Patterns, etc. Finally sort by craft: Kinting, Crochet, etc. DO NOT LOOK THROUGH THEM! We will get into that in a bit, just focus on categorizing them at this point.  
• Get rid of the unwanted. Just as with your single patterns, there are books & magazines that you may no longer need. Keep the things you know you will use, perhaps set a limit for each book/magazine: it should have (X) amount of patterns you know you will make in order to keep it. Did you buy a book on afghans and have found that you don't actually enjoy making them? Put that book into the "give away" pile. 
• Bookmark patterns. As you go through your books keep a post-it note pad and pen handy. When you find a pattern you want to keep in mind for a future project stick a note on it and write yourself a reminder, maybe the name of the pattern, what it is or who you wish to make it for. 
• Store them. Now you have tagged your patterns, gotten rid of books you no longer need you can begin to put them away. You can use magazine files or magazine binders for all of your magazines or booklets. Place your books by category so that they will be at your fingertips when you need them. 

Bring all of your give away's to our yarn swap and see if anyone would like them or donate them to a group who could use them. 

Enter a comment below and let us know how you are going to categorize and store your patterns.  

We are nearing the end of our organization challenge, after we finish up our patterns all that is left is the yarn!!! Let me know if there is anything you are having problems with so I can make sure and address any issues. 

I hope you were able to organize your WIP's and it wasn't too painful to decide which one's to keep and which to trade or frog! 

This week we are going to focus on our tools. As a knitter or crocheter you have accumulated a ton of tools. Keeping your tools organized won't only help you quickly accomplish a successful project, but it will keep you from buying multiples of what you already have.  With the tips below you will be sure to always find the stitch holder or cabling needle you are looking for. You will also know while at the yarn store with the perfect new pattern and yarn if you already have the right size hook, cable or needles. 

• Assess your needle & hook situation. Pull out ALL of your needles, hooks & notions (don't forget the one's you have in any current project). Divide your needles and hooks up by type: Straight needles, DPN's, Fixed Cable Needles, Interchangeable Needles, Regular Hooks, Tunisian, Afghan Hook, etc. 
  
• Whittle down your inventory. Do you have duplicates of any of these items? If so do you need them all? Having extra can come in handy if you work on multiple projects or you may have a project that requires multiple needles. If there are any needles or hooks you no longer like or use now is the time to get rid of them. You may feel that they are too slippery or have too much grip for the types of yarn you use, you may not like the shape of the hook or the way your circulars join; for whatever reason these no longer serve their purpose. 
• Keep track of your needles & hooks. There are several options on how to accomplish this. If you are a technical person you can use Ravelry to track your needles. They have made it so you can enter multiples of each needle/hook, you can also put in notes such as: what brand you have or if they are being used in a particular project. You can access your Raverly Notebook on any computer, tablet or smartphone device, or if you would rather, you can print out a pocket card to keep in your purse or wallet. They have made it quite convenient to keep track of your supplies. Here is a great tutorial for setting up your needle/hook chart. There are all types of phone/tablet Apps. out now to help track your tools, just look through your App Store. If you're not so tech savvy then you can always track your needles & hooks in a notebook or on a note card. Use whatever makes it easiest for you to keep track of what you have so you can know what you need. 
• Gather your notions. Pull out all of your notions, remember to check project bags or the couch/chair that seems to eat your tools! Lay them all out in front of you grouping like items together. Figure out your duplicates, the items you use most as well as the items you no longer use. 
• Store your tools. We have several options at the shop to help you store your hooks, needles & notions. There are also a ton of ideas out there for storing all of these items, check out our Pinterest Board to see a few. Think about which notions you use most often and which rarely get used. Possibly create an "on the go" notions bag and one that has everything. Your on the go bag should contain: stitch markers, a crochet hook, mini scissors, a tape measure, darning needles and floss or waist thread. 
• What to do with those unwanted items??? Consider selling them, hold on to them to trade at our yarn swap, donate them to a local nursing home, Girl Scout Troop or an after school program. 

Here are a few links to some needle holders you can make yourself:
Needle Case 
Hooty the Owl Buddy 
Crochet Container
Wall Hanging Needle Holder

In the comments below, let us know how you are going to store your needles/hooks and notions. Are you going to use Ravelry or have you found a great App you'd like to use? What seems to work best for you?