KonMari and Your Knitting Patterns - Knitting in the Park

How to organize and store your beloved knitting patterns with the KonMari Method

In this blog post series, we’re going through the different tools, resources, and supplies that we as knitters accumulate. In the previous post, we took a look at your needles and notions. Using the KonMari Method from Netflix Star Mari Kondo, we’ll look at how to go through, organize, and store your knitting patterns in this post.

I’ve noticed that over the years, I’ve accumulated a good bit of paper in my knitting stash. I’ve got yarn labels from my favorite skeins, or skeins that I’ve featured in patterns. Then of course there’s the digital downloads that I’ve printed out. And mixed in are books and magazines that feature skills, patterns, etc.

What can organizing your knitting Patterns with KonMari do?

Currently, all this paper is in a pile…a jumbled pile. So I’m going to go through them using the KonMari method and I do hope you’ll join me. Why?

If I am totally honest with you, there is a large portion of this pile that I’ve printed, “stored”, and then never touched. I’ve realized that many of these patterns have been saved for a rainy day, or when I hit a draught of creative energy.

If I organize them, I’ll be much more likely to use them.
Some, I’ll never knit. These I’m going to recycle so they’re not taking up space.
Some, I’ve paid for – but have since lost. If I can easily find them, I won’t accidentally purchase them a second time.
In KonMari-ing the rest of my house, I can no longer abide loose piles of paper laying around and I want to tidy up my knitting room.

So how do you KonMari your Knitting Patterns?

Mari Kondo breaks the house and its items into different categories. Paper, is the second. She instructs us to gather all of our paper into one place. Then, she identifies different types of paper. There’s the functional paper, the bills, user manuals, deeds, etc. Then there’s sentimental items, cards, valentines, children’s pictures, etc.

In knitting, I tend to find that most of the paper we save is functional rather then sentimental. Unless, that is, you have had patterns different things passed down from a loved one. I missed out on that. So if you do have these, be sure to set them aside and store them in a special place. I’d even scan them so you have them as a digital resource as well.

First thing’s First:

Gather up all of the paper. Yup, pull it all out – out of the drawers, shelves, binders, folders, all of it. (You may need to promise those with whom you live that this is for the best once they see the pile).

Clear some space to create designated piles:

Must Keep: the most functional patterns, books, bills and papers/books like user manuals.

Keep: Patterns that will be organized and saved.

Might Keep: Patters that you aren’t sure about. Maybe you’ve knit them and didn’t love them or no longer need them.

Not Keeping: Whether you didn’t like the book, or you no longer like this pattern, this is the pile that you’ll save for last.

Step Two: Sorting

Put on your sorting cap if you’re into Harry Potter. Bust out your ribbon if your a Lemon Snickets buff. Whatever it takes, mentally and physically prepare yourself for the sorting of this great pile.

Hold each piece of paper in your hand. Take the time to not only read the title or recognize what this paper is, but also the feeling you have when you hold it. This is especially true for patterns. It will help you determine which to keep and which to clear out.

Mari Kondo describes this feeling as joy. Her methods are designed to determine which items in each of these different phases “spark joy” which enables us to know which to keep and where/how to store them.

Now that the sorting’s all done and dusted…

It’s time to organize and put these all away. You might be thinking, but Mags we just organized them. Which is true, but at a very high level. Now we’re going to take each pile and organize them in order to store or discard them.

Let’s break it down:

I like to go in reverse order here, starting with the discard pile. This is where we can make the fastest work and gain some extra room. For this pile, you want to sort out what you might give away or donate from what you’re going to recycle. When that’s done you can clear away the recycled stuff and move the donate items to another space.

Continuing in reverse order, next is the pile of undecided items, those that you might keep. It’s round two for this pile. Seeing how much you are keeping might help you to let go, or know that you want to hold on to some of the paper in this pile. Once you’ve gone through these a second time, place the keeps in the keep pile. For the discarded paper, sort these either into the recycle or donate piles.

Moving right along! Now it’s time for the good stuff: the keeps and must keep papers. Buoyed by the positive energy that comes from clearing out the clutter, we can now start making the decisions about how to group patterns, and where to store them.

Can the KonMari Method work on Digital Patterns too?

I have a bunch of printed paper patterns and books yes, but I also have a good deal of free and paid digital downloads. Rather than allow these to gum up my computer and steal all of the storage, I upload these patterns to the cloud.

I have a special folder in my Google Drive in which I store knitting related documents. And inside of this there is a clearly defined file structure for both my own patterns, and patterns I’ve saved from other designers. This safely stores the patterns and cuts down on my need to print them out, saving trees and taking up less space. Use a folder structure that makes sense to you and makes it easy to find these patterns.

I personally use the type of project as the way I organize my patterns, by hats, sweaters, scarves and shawls, etc. Storing them based on the required skills, the types of yarn, or the yarn weight are other ways to organize these patterns.