Knitting Patterns to Help Keep You Organized

I’ve been thinking a lot about organization this month and I wondered if we could knit things to keep our knitting lives in order. Because any excuse for a knitting project, right?

One of the most obvious things that knitters can knit for themselves to keep their knitting stuff organized is needle storage. You can make your own knit needle rolls like the Case in Point from Briney Deep Designs, which calls for sport-weight cotton. Reinforce the knitting with fabric (which keeps your needles from poking through as easily) with this pattern from DW Crochet Patterns, which uses three colors of DK weight yarn.

How about storing circular needles? You can try the Memories of Aloha knitting needle holder from Bellaricka, which is a cool wall hanging even without needles woven through it. This one uses cables and lace to make holes through which to drape your needles, and it uses DK weight yarn. You can even use a knitting needle to hang it!

Another option is this Circularity needle organizer from Lark & Lupine, which is a free download on Ravelry. It has stripes and cables to help you keep your needles organized, and you can embroider the sizes and cable lengths on the side of the wall hanging so you always know what goes where and can find what you need. This one uses aran/worsted weight yarn and would be a great stash buster.

Cast on Calamity has an idea fr making little sleeves for needles that include bobbles and eyelets to indicate the measurement in millimeters for the needles (example: a 5.5 mm needle sleeve would have 5 bobbles and 2 eyelets). My cat would probably steal these but it’s a cool idea.

Make a big felted wall hanging with pockets that can hold needles and other supplies with this free pattern from Berroco. Organiza uses bulky yarn and has six sleeves for needles and 14 pockets of various sizes that can hold needles, crochet hooks, scissors and other notions and supplies.

And if you like to keep all your supplies literally close at hand you can stitch up a Pandemic Wrister. This free pattern from Claudia Krisniski is on Ravelry and is worked in worsted weight yarn. It gives you space for stitch markers, yarn needles, cable needles and more right where you need them.

Generally I like knitting patterns where I feel like you can use whatever yarn you have (because my stash is big enough and I want to use it, thanks) and make a successful project. This is one of those times when a special yarn makes the process that much easier.

The Floral Bouquet Shawl from Xandy Peters uses a specific extended color pooling yarn from Feisty Fibers, which allows you to place the bobble flowers with increasing frequency as you knit the project.

It starts with a solid color yarn, then the two color yarn is added in, and you make a bobble whenever you encounter the color pops. This would be hard to replicate with other yarn that doesn’t have the extended color pooling built in.

The background of the shawl is ribbed, making the project reversible.

The shawl uses fingering/sock yarn and comes out to be an asymmetrical triangle that’s 54 inches/137 cm long and 36 inches/ 90 cm deep and 60 inches/150 cm across the top edge.

Xandy says the pattern is for intermediate to advanced knitters. Knowing how to work traditional bobbles would probably help, but there’s a great video tutorial for how to work the floral bobbles so you can practice on other yarn or even incorporate the bobbles into other projects.

The bobbles are five-petaled flowers but they also kind of look like starfish to me, which could be fun on a child’s cardigan or other pattern. They’d also be fun on the leg of a sock or around the brim of a hat for extra whimsy.

The pattern includes photo and video tutorials, and written and charted instructions. It also includes tips on what to look for if you choose to use different yarn for the project, and instructions on how to dye your own yarn to use in the project.

If you want to give it a try, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Xandy Peters]

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