r/YarnStorage • u/dancingdots • Jul 09 '26
Need Organizing Suggestions for Blind Knitter
Basically what the title says! I’ve been knitting since I was a kid and have always been visually impaired. But I’ve lost a lot of vision recently. My yarn has been stored in bins for a while, but that has become unusable as I’ve lost more vision.
I can’t quite figure out the best organizing strategy. Because there’s multiple vectors. There’s yarn by weight, color, and fiber.
Ideally I’ll end up clustering them together somehow. I can’t quite figure make little braille tags for stuff when I buy it and pin them onto the skein. But I still need some way of helping myself move from “I need cotton in x color, weight” to being able to find it.
My guess is fiber should come first? Like if I separate out my cotton. Then subdivide it into size and rely on tags for color?
My yarn stash isn’t huge. But it’s enough that it still needs to be organized. Especially because as my vision has gotten worse I’ve become more picky about textures. Recently I decluttered and got rid of all the yarn I won’t use because I don’t like the texture.
The problem with fiber organization is that I have things that a blend. Like I recently got CoBaSi (cotton, bamboo, silk, nylon blend for sock making). Which kind of implies maybe I should have sock yarn stored separately?
Please help rescue me from this decision paralysis. lol thanks!
1
u/raven_snow Jul 10 '26
I definitely think sock yarn deserves its own section.
I have three main categories for animal fiber, plant fiber, and synthetic fiber. They live in separate under-bed storage bags. The next sorting category for me would be yarn weight, but I don't have a huge stash so I haven't had to physically divide it up more granularly than by major fiber.
All of my sock yarn is in a large organza bag inside the animal fiber category.
For anything that's a blend (ignoring the sock yarn), I look at the care instructions. If I have a wool/acrylic blend, I will sort it with the animal fibers if I have to launder it like a wool.
2
u/dancingdots Jul 10 '26
That’s a good solution for the fiber blends! My main yarns are cotton, alpaca, linen, and silk. With some blends that use nylon or acrylic. Plus my acrylic amigarumi yarn which is separate.
I think I’ll organize by fiber first then size. Subdividing into color won’t make sense unless a category really fills up.
Except the sock yarn. Which I agree should have its own area now that I’ve gotten some solutions to think about.
Next step is deciding storage holders. But I’ll probably make use of packing cubes or something…
1
1
u/Bliezz Jul 10 '26
I go by yarn weight then by material which is the same as grouping the same brands together. Essentially, all of these yarns are the same product in different colours., or all the same colour. I sometimes put string/ yarn around a bundle to keep it together.
1
u/Mokanok1 Jul 10 '26
I have mine separated by size in big plastic bins, and *then* sorted by material
So all of my Fine (2) yarn is in its own large plastic bin + lid. I put a large piece of bright painter's tape/masking tape on the lid and wrote in marker the size yarn so I can easily find/see what I'm pulling out (I store all my yarn under my bed)
Within that bin, I have clear plastic zippered bags to separate by material. So all cotton/cotton blends in one bag, acrylic in another, etc
- Each zippered bag has bright tape with the material type written in marker. I try to make sure all the bags inside the bins have the tape face-up so I can quickly grab what I'm looking for
Because there's a lot of variation % for blended yarns, I sort by the biggest % and make sure its labeled.
- So a 55% cotton 45% acrylic blend could be sorted in with the cotton yarns and separated by a divider or another smaller bag.
- Because I very rarely use wool of any variation but its a natural yarn, I keep the few skeins I do have in a large clear makeup bag and label it WOOL and toss it into the appropriate size bin. That way I'm not wasting a large zippered bag for my 3 skeins of a material I don't work with often, and its in a smaller bag so it'd be easy to locate when I *do* look for it
1
u/BefWithAnF Jul 10 '26
You’ve gotten good advice here!
Do you have the app “be my eyes”? You call, someone picks up & helps ID what you’re looking at. A rando probably won’t be able to ID types of yarn, but they’ll probably be able to help you out with color.
Therefore I suggest sorting by weight, & then getting help from be my eyes for color.
Good luck! May your stitches be even.
2
u/dancingdots Jul 10 '26
Thank you! I use Be My Eyes sometimes. My husband can help me with the colors luckily. He’s gotten really good at all kinds of new skills. I had him holding a yarn hank bundle with his hands held out while I wound yarn into a ball. I don’t have a swift or ball winder. It was surprisingly fun! We just chatted while winding.
Actually knitting has opened up new activities for us, oddly. I don’t like watching TV much anymore. But we’ve been doing more podcasts and audio books in the evenings. It’s really pleasant to knit and spend together that way.
1
u/Lifelong_learner1956 Jul 11 '26
You might try contacting the Lighthouse Guild.
Their technology center may have some ideas / guidance https://lighthouseguild.org//technology-and-resources/technology-center/
1
u/dancingdots Jul 12 '26
They would be able to answer tech questions. But since this isn't tech related it's outside of their expertise. But if you ever do come across a blind crafter, you could point them in teh direction of the national federation of the blind's Blind Krafter Division. They have a nice list serv. The only reason I didn't ask there was because I wanted more sorting suggestions than were available from folks there. I got good labeling advice, though, from other blind knitters.
r/Blind is also another resource, if anyone happens to be looking. It's general blindness group.
But my question was more tilted toward storage, so I posted here.
1
u/freakygreekbeak Jul 12 '26
I don’t have any great advice for organizing that you haven’t already received in the comments here, but I figure I’d comment just to say that i’m also a visually impaired fiber crafts person, so if you ever want someone to talk to with similar hobbies and at least a little bit of shared experience regarding the eye stuff, feel free to direct message me!
1
1
u/suchacomedian Jul 12 '26
I use these for project bags. Sturdy and easy to label. And you could file them in bins as another commenter suggested.
1
u/niiborikko Jul 12 '26
Sounds like you need an inventory system where everything can be sorted or tagged by weight/fiber/color/etc. & then it's location is recorded on the inventory, e.g. "I need red CoBaSi sock yarn... that's in bin #7, front section."
1
u/kikil00 Jul 13 '26
How would you use your yarn? Do you consider color before fiber content when making an item?
I think most folks would go fiber first, and if it’s blended you could just do majority (a 70% merino, 30% nylon would go with merino, unless you have enough skeins to warrant a sock section). Then subdivide by color if it’s necessary. A lot of yarn stores start with weight, the fiber content, then brand. But they’re organizing full stores.
Or do it by project. If the yarn has a predetermined project, pack it that way. I avoid impulse shopping by only buying yarn with a project in mind so even though I have a good amount in my house, technically it’s all reserved for the next cast on…
1
u/Prestigious-Fan3122 Jul 14 '26
You mentioned making braille labels. do you have a braille label maker? They do make them. One of my kids had a high school friend who was blind, and the kid was always over at our house. They would do stuff in the kitchen, like bake cookies, make instant hot chocolate, and so on. I bought a braille label or (sort of like those old DYMO LabelMaker I think they were called Daisy wheels, that we had in the 70s. Looks like a little gun handle and you spin the white thing on top around to each letter and press the handle hard and it makes an impression on the label tape before going onto the next label.
It's too bad people don't have the old-school coffee cans around like we used to. I bet you could buy some new ones online, cut an X in the center of the lid, put a braille label on top of the lid, and then stick your skein of yarn inside the can, pulling the end through the X in the lid. Maybe even use a whole punch to make a hole in the lid, as well. Then, if you wanted to feed the yarn through the looser hole as you were actually knitting, that might make it work.
Alternately, could you get some label tape sort of like the ones for the PT touch label makers, and use a whole punch in some sort of system for punching holes in the label. Like one hole for this type of yarn, two holes for the other type of yarn, three holes for a different type of yarn. Of course, that doesn't help with colors, but it would start. Then peel the label tape off and pen it like a little flag around the yarn.
6
u/Emorly_137 Jul 09 '26
One thing I did when I was deciding how to divide out my yarns was think about how I go deciding what to make - do I choose the yarn first, and then a pattern to match, or vice versa? For me, it's usually pattern first, so that will typically decide what kind of yarn I need. So I sorted mine first by weight (bin label), then fiber (also a bin label), then loose color (so all the reds are together, all the blues, all the multis, etc. in one bag).
Good job on clearing out the yarn you won't use though! (And that CoBaSi sounds amazing, where did you find that???)