Monday, May 13, 2019

Yarn Color Organizer - FREE TUTORIAL

As a designer, I try to use a wide variety of colors. There are only so many colors available in the yarn that I like to use. I had tried to just eyeball my design colors on screen, only to be disappointed when the color on screen didn't exactly match the yarn colors I was actually going to use. The design turns out so different!



Since I mainly use one brand when I design my Corner to Corner blankets, I decided to make a catalog of sorts so that 1) I could see what each color looked like IN REAL LIFE, and 2) I could easily see how much of it I have in stock (optional), and 3) where I could buy it if I needed more.

So this post is to explain how I put together this lovely organized binder to sort my yarn colors!

I started by comparing a few different websites and local stores to see which stores had what colors. I was surprised to see the differences in what yarn colors the stores like Michael's and Joann carried in stock. It is super helpful to see which yarns were easily accessible in-store, and which colors HAD to be ordered online, either from those two companies or other websites.

Click here to download the catalog!

When you click above, you will get the printable catalog I put together, complete with the Caron Simply Soft Solids available at the online stores at MichaelsJoannHerrschnersYarnspirations. When I go into my local store, I put a mark on the ones available in store (will vary based on your location). For this option, I also included an option for Walmart, since they have some options available (especially when I am desperate!)

What I did to put together my binder is print two copies of the catalog. I went into my local Joann, Michael's, and Walmart and filled out the local availability of each color. YOU ONLY NEED TO DO THIS ONCE! This has saved me SO MUCH TIME looking for which store would have the colors I need. I cut up one copy of the filled out catalog to make a little card for each color yarn and slid them into a trading card holder plastic binder sheet. I put the second copy of the catalog in page protectors in the back. This was just for easy reference and quicker lookup without the bulk.

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Get some Trading Card Binder Sheets

Cutting the "cards"


Then, since I wanted to have a REAL sample of the yarn color, I bought some embroidery yarn bobbins to hold the yarn. For this project, I needed two of these 28-packs to have enough for all the yarn colors.

Get your Embroidery Yarn Bobbins

I took about a yard from each color and wound it around the little bobbin neatly. You need it to be as flat as possible so that they don't fall out of the little pouch, and so it doesn't make the binder excessively bulky.

Winding up bobbins


After cutting the yarn and tucking in the tail, you just slip the coordinating color into the right pouch for that color.

Slide bobbin in place

And as you do that for EVERY COLOR, you get a beautiful, gorgeous spread of all your color choices!

I found it to interesting to see how well some of the printed colors matched the yarn.... or didn't! This is exactly why I put together this binder. I needed to be able to see the TRUE colors to match them up in my designs more accurately. Screens and printers create so much variation that I just HAD to have the actual yarn available to refer to. This was the perfect solution!

I hope that you have found this tutorial helpful!