How to KonMari Your Knitting Needles and Notions

How to Apply the Marie Kondo or KonMari Method to your Knitting Tools

In the last post, I introduced a new short series of blog posts: a step by step instruction for how to clean up, declutter, and organize your knitting supplies and tools. The first post was the prep, the promise that I’m not going to tell you to clean out your entire stash and donate it – although there will be some resources and tips for donating your gently loved and unused notions, tools, and virgin yarn.

As you knit, different projects require different tools. Research and exploration lead you to try different or new to you tools. Needles seem to jump into your basket or cart. And we end up with quite a good bit of “stuff” in our needles and notions storage area. For me, this is a soft fabric bin on the shelves in my office.

A new knitter will have a different experience with this first phase than an experienced knitter. Newer knitters are less likely to have accumulated a wide array of needles in various shapes and sizes, stitch markers, tassel and pom pom makers, etc.

Why do KonMari your Needles and Notions?

Organization: You’ll be able to find what you need for your next project quickly and easily.

Sanity: This part of your home will be a lot more organized. If you’re like our family, your significant other will thank you.

Saving Money: When you can’t find something that you need, there’s a good chance you’ll run out and buy it again. By always being able to find what you need, you’ll cut down on your shopping and have more funds left for squishy mail!

Let’s start with gathering up and taking stock of your needles and notions:

Don’t panic. I’m not going to tell you to go through and keep only one needle in each size. That’s not realistic and I definitely wouldn’t do that myself.

Needles:

Over the years you tend to collect a fair amount of needles. Some tend to keep these pristinely organized, and others well, not so much. Regardless of whether you are neat or not, let’s start this first step.

Grab your needles, and group them by type (straight, circular, double pointed, and cable needles), and group them by size.

Now that you have them organized, you can see just how many needles you have. There are generally needles that you use, those that you save for that one project with which you might have a chance encounter, and those you’ll never use again.

If you’re like me, you might have started with straight needles and progressed to using circulars almost exclusively. So I gathered up most of my straight needles and set them aside for donation. This is a good chance to go through your needles, pitch the broken, maybe mend/sand the warped, and organize them into sizes.

Stitch Markers:

After the knitting needles, this is a great opportunity to take some time to chase down all of the stray stitch markers that have gone array. Whether it’s from their own involvement in your projects, or their accidental scattering, stitch markers have a propensity for travel.

You have the choice to gather them all up in one bin, bag or bowl, or to organize them by type, size, or shape now. I found mine in at least three different rooms, two drawers, and a few under couches.

Tapestry Needles:

After your stitch markers are organized, tapestry needles are my next “go to”. I can’t be the only one who started with plastic, then graduated to metal, and then opted for the metal ones with the bent tips…or who thinks they’ve lost a few and buys a new set only to find those that were lost. Gather these up and give them their own space.

Other Tools:

You might have an array of other tools that we haven’t yet covered. This is our knitting version of Mari’s Komono or Miscellaneous category. Here, it’s time to gather up your row counters, pom pom and tassel forms, needle stoppers, fuzz razors, scissors, etc.

These you can organize any way you like, by size, order of use/importance, etc. Just lay them out so that you can take stock of what you have.

Project Bags:

Even if they’re not officially some kind of project bag purchased from a knitting company, there’s a good chance you have a go to bag…or three for carrying your projects. I have a few bags, a basket or two, and a wooden bowl that I use for both carrying projects around and storing them in the house. Grab these.

We’re literally going through everything you use to knit here people.

In Mari Kondo’s words, “What items spark joy?”

Now that we’ve taken the time to lay out all of our tools, needles, and notions, let’s take a few moments to take stock of what’s here.

Do you have more or less needles than you thought you did?

Are there items you forgot that you had, or haven’t seen in a while?

Are you surprised to find duplicates of certain items?

A three step process for letting go:

The KonMari method would have you hold each item, in order to identify whether it sparks joy or not.

First, let’s look at functionality: Find and remove any and all broken items, including bent or items damaged beyond repair.

Next, going group by group (literally by each size and type of needle, notion, etc.) identify what you no longer use. If you think you might use it in the future keep it, but if you can’t see a use for it, it’s time to part with it. Thank it, and place it in a pile to donate or recycle. We’ll come back to this in a minute.

Lastly, identify your duplicates. I find that there are sizes in which I frequently work regarding my needles. So, I keep a few duplicates in various lengths here. But, if you have graduated to a set of interchangeable needles, keeping multiple sets of straight or fixed circulars might not make much sense for you. Pick your favorites, or the items in the best condition and set the others in the donate or recycle piles based on their condition.

All of your favorites remain unscathed, but organized. Now it’s time to organize them, and put it all away. I find this part actually sparks the most joy for me, because I now know what I actually have and where it “lives”.

For the items that are still in relatively good shape. Please don’t pitch them. There are schools, girl scout troops, shelters, hospitals, old age homes, and other groups that will accept donated knitting tools. A quick Google search or query at your local knitting store can help to identify one either close to home or your heart.