Spring Clean Your Knitting

Today I’m sharing how to spring clean your knitting. Yarn, needles, and knitting patterns all need an occasional refresh, and for me that happens in the spring.

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Whether you have a shelf, a hutch, a bin, or a room dedicated to your yarn stash, these tips are going to help you get re-energized and inspired for knitting as the seasons change.

>>>You can watch my very first yarn hutch spring cleaning here.

Why does spring cleaning your knitting matter?

For some, it might not!

But for me, I’m a very visual person who has four small kids. I like to have some areas of our home (usually up high) pretty to look at beyond the Polly Pockets on the floor!

When I’m knitting, designing, or dreaming of a new cast on, I like looking at some of the yarn choices I have. It’s been incredibly helpful on my journey to buy less yarn.

Instead of wondering what’s under my bed in bins or looking at all the shiny new yarn being sold, I can look right to the yarn on my wall for inspiration!

It also helps me be realistic about my yarn. Sometimes you need to let yarn or projects go, and I would never find those projects (and release the knitting needles tied up in them!) if I never went through my stash.

When you’re spring cleaning your knitting, it doesn’t mean you’re a recovering hoarder, either.

Project bags collect yarn scraps, needles are lost without their match, and even patterns need a refresh, or to be tossed if they were no good.

>>Check out my yarn hutch makeover playlist here.

How to spring clean your knitting:

To spring clean your knitting is all-encompassing. That means yarn, needles, and patterns need a refresh to be brought into the new season. But it can be as involved or as simple as you want!

The Yarn

Clean it up

Pull out everything. Everything! If you have shelves or bins, take all the yarn, tools, and patterns out. Give everything a really good wipe down, toss garbage, and make a pile of things that go somewhere else but sneezed their way into your stash (a blue Lego? Just me?).

Keep, donate, toss

Give everything a place to go: a pile of what you’ll keep, what you’ll donate, and what scraps or tangled yarn you can toss. It’s totally okay to have a “not sure yet” pile, too! I have a tip for those in a minute!

Add your anchors

Baskets to anchor down where your yarn goes are a must. If you have a shelf that yarn sits on, chances are you already know the topple game you play whenever you get yarn out. I use shallow baskets under cabinets and wire baskets on their side for yarn up on shelves.

Don’t make it hard to get your yarn out! Or else you probably won’t use it.

For those of you using bins, having mini storage bins or even gallon zip top bags to group like-yarn inside can be so helpful, instead of a giant bin of yarn you can’t locate.

Decorate (for yarn on shelves)

Choose a few small decorations to spruce up your yarn on a shelf!

What to do with the “not sure yet” yarn?

Set that yarn in a separate bin that you put away for a few months. If you missed any of it, it should go back into your yarn stash. Didn’t notice it was gone? Pass it on.
Create a “gift knitting” basket, where you can work on Christmas or other gift knits all year long. You’ll be sending a hand knit gift on to someone with that yarn you liked, but didn’t love enough to keep in your stash.

The Needles

Please don’t neglect your knitting needles! In a needle case, notions bag, or drawer like mine they still can lose their matches. And sometimes you end up with bonus things that don’t normally belong with needles, so it’s good to do a clean sweep through every spring.

You can read all about how I organize my knitting needles here.

The main thing is, just like spring cleaning your knitting with yarn, you also need to make your needles easily available to help support your knitting.

Try to find a dedicated place for your knitting needles! I use the drawer in my yarn hutch. If you want a visual, watch my yarn hutch makeover video and scroll ahead to the 2:38 mark.

The Patterns

Are you like me? I tend to keep printed patterns, even ones I never plan to knit.

So the first step of spring cleaning your knitting with patterns is to decide what you want to keep or toss.

Next, check your computer for saved PDFs or anything you haven’t downloaded off Ravelry. Print those out if you want to keep a physical copy of them.

The last thing is to decide how you want to store your patterns. In a binder? Folders? An accordion folder? Maybe a cool knitting scrapbook? I definitely recommend storing them somewhere where you can separate them into categories, instead of just stacked in the back of your planner or desk drawer.

Here’s what I do with all of my knitting patterns as a knitting designer.