Storing yarn, hooks and patterns

What harms stored yarn

Yarn keeps well in a place that is clean, dark and dry. Three things harm it.

• Sunlight. Long exposure to the sun fades color. Keep yarn out of direct sun.
• Damp. A humid place lets mold grow. Store yarn somewhere dry.
• Moths. Clothes moths lay eggs on wool and other animal fibers, and the larvae eat them. They like dark, crowded places.

How to keep moths away

• Know which yarn is at risk. Wool and other animal fibers are what moths go for. The label names the fiber, and crochet yarn types explains each one.
• Disturb it. Take stored wool out now and then, shake it in the light and look it over.
• Use lavender. Sachets of dried lavender kept with the yarn are a common deterrent.

Bags and boxes

Makers do not agree about plastic, so here are both views.

• Plastic. Some keep yarn in clear zipped bags and in plastic boxes with lids. A clear one shows what is inside.
• Cloth. Others keep wool and other natural fibers in cloth bags, such as old pillowcases, and never in plastic. Their reason is that a sealed container stops the air from moving, and trapped damp leads to mold.

Either way, make it easy to find things. Sort yarn by kind, such as by weight, by fiber or by color, and label each box. Yarn weights explains the weight names.

Keep the label, and wind what is left

• Keep the label with the yarn. The ball band says what the yarn is, and it carries the dye lot number. Tuck it into the bag with a part-used skein.
• Wind part-used skeins into balls. A skein that is half used goes slack and tangles with its neighbors. Wind it loosely into a small ball before you put it away. Winding yarn into a ball shows how.

Keep one dye lot together

Yarn is dyed in batches called dye lots, and the lot number is printed on the label. Two lots of the same color can differ a little in shade. The difference is hard to see on the shelf and plain to see in a finished piece.

So buy all the yarn for one piece at once, from one lot, and store it together with its labels. The amount is whatever the pattern calls for. The yarn calculator gives an estimate when you have no pattern.

Hooks and small tools

• A case for hooks. A case, wallet or pouch made for hooks keeps them in one place, and it goes into a bag with the work.
• One pouch for small tools. Keep scissors, yarn needles and stitch markers together in a small zipped bag.
• A hook with each piece. Leave the hook you are using with the piece it belongs to. You may have changed size along the way, and the piece should be finished with the same hook.

Patterns

• Paper patterns. Slip each one into a clear page protector and keep them in a binder, sorted by kind of thing.
• Patterns on a screen. Save the file itself to your phone or computer, so that it opens without a connection.
• The one in use. Keep a copy of the pattern in the bag with the piece and its yarn.

Questions people ask

Can yarn go bad? It can fade in sunlight, grow moldy in damp, and be eaten by moths if it is an animal fiber. Kept clean, dry and dark, it lasts.

Do moths eat acrylic or cotton yarn? Moths are drawn to animal fibers such as wool. Those are the ones to guard.

Should I keep the paper band? Yes. It is the record of what the yarn is and of its dye lot.

Where to go next

• Keeping track of works in progress covers pieces you have started.
• How to wash crochet covers finished pieces.