Patterns, Patterns- there are so many good patterns on the internet, how do you organize your patterns? How do you store your patterns or keep track of good crochet patterns, crochet ideas or even patterns in process?
How can you organize your crochet pattern links? Pinterest is an excellent storage place for internet links and you get a great visual of each pattern as you open the board. Quite frankly, it is my favorite place to keep track of patterns or patterns that spark new ideas for my projects. Make a secret board and you will have a wonderful place to keep patterns for gifts and ideas of things to crochet for friends and family. Filtering through all the ideas is easy and you can delete or add at will and no one can see what you are thinking about.
You can also use your bookmarks function on your computer. Mine is so cluttered right now that I am not sure which project is in which link. Organizing these links into different files would be helpful.
Composition book
If you prefer an old school approach, then a composition book or binder is a great way to keep track of ideas that you come across. You can even note down any web addresses that you come across. When the kids finished their schooling, we had an overwhelming amount of unused or partially used school supplies. I cut out the old pages, slap a label on the cover and get started.
They are handy and have hard back covers. Small enough to fit in my project bags and lightweight enough to carry everywhere. The sticky tabs and sticky notes work great as labels and make it easy to find the new information. Leave the first 4 pages blank for a table of contents.
Tape in yarn labels and color ideas, gauge, stripe samples, drawings, and any other information in the creation of a pattern, or item.
You need to do this, it will be such a help to you. How many times do you think back and wonder what kind of yarn, brand or color did you crochet that hat out of? If it is written down you can flip back and see exactly what you did and how you did it.
www.Ravelry.com does this for you online but sometimes you want to keep things secret from nosy friends, family or even strangers. I know that these two ideas will help you organize your patterns and keep track of your projects!
New Patterns
Here are two new patterns coming out in the shops this week. They are very similar in pattern so don’t be surprised when you buy them. The Red Eyelet Blanket is a bit easier than the Purple Eyelet Blanket. There is also the Eyelet Blanket bundle which includes the Baby Eyelet Blanket pattern. The Red and the Purple Blanket use chunky yarns and crochet up so quickly that you can probably finish 1 if not both between now and Christmas!
There are so many great projects on the horizon. Next week there is the free tutorial coming out to help you use many of your scrap yarns! I love to use up yarn scraps and make space for new skeins. I can’t wait to show you.
Talk to you later,
Karen
P.S. How do you organize your patterns? Let me know, I am always looking for a better way to organize.