Hubby thinks I have waaay too much yarn. I defensively stated that it was only enough to fill two 30-gallon bins, and even with that- the second one would only be half full. I just had to get it into some semblance of order, since I have a lot of donated scraps, and half-completed projects that I frogged, but never properly unraveled.

So I started grouping things together. Anything that was at least 50% wool (not superwash), was placed in a gallon storage bag together. Anything that was at least 60% cotton has it’s own gallon bag. And of course- acrylics were grouped together. I like using storage bags- you can squish a lot in them, and pack them in the bin. And it feels like you have more room. You probably do, since you’re confining the yarn to a certain space, instead of just letting them roam free in the bin (like I had been doing).

Even so- I have two cakes of mystery yarn. No clue where the labels are for them. And they don’t specifically feel like one thing or the other. They have some slight stray yarns (you know- the few strands that kind of stand up and wave at you) like alpaca or angora, but they don’t FEEL like either. And they don’t FEEL like wool, so I have no idea what they are. They’re probably equal parts of several animals, so that doesn’t really help me with my predetermined categories (Mostly wool… mostly cotton… mostly acrylic… mostly bamboo…). While I know almost certainly that they will be hand wash/dry flat- I don’t know where they should go.

I also have several monstrous tangles of yarn, so I set about untangling them. One acrylic ball of purple variegated yarn… several lovely blue balls that NEED to be a sweater were untangled. They have also lost their labels, but I know for certain that they are Red Heart Soft; so assuming they still produce this colorway- I can just buy more balls and set around to that sweater they are DYING to be. (I know, because they told me so last night.) I started on some angora rabbit yarn (I let a hank untwist and it has de-evolved into a nightmare. The other hank is fine.), but did not get far in the untangling process, so that will be my homework for tonight.

I also ran out of storage bags, so the sorting will have to continue when I get more. Ideally I want one bin dedicated to acrylic yarn, and one bin for everything else.

Oh and I probably should mention that I have one bin that specifically houses my yarn BOOKS and magazines. But it doesn’t need sorting. However- when I move and can have a dedicated yarn space (read OFFICE)- I will have to find a way to make those more accessible. And then I’ll have another bin for yarn. Everybody wins!

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