How to Organize Your Skeins of Yarn (and Never Despair Again)

It starts with three skeins in a little basket and, before you know it, you end up with a tangled nest of colors where you can never find the one you're looking for. If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Organizing your threads isn't an obsession: it's what makes sitting down to embroider a pleasure, not a treasure hunt. I'll show you how.

The classic method: bobbins and box

The system used by embroiderers of all time, and for good reason:

• Wrap each skein on a cardboard or plastic bobbin. Goodbye to tangles forever.
• Write the DMC number on each bobbin. This is the step most people skip and the most important: without a number, one blue looks very much like another blue.
• Store them in an organizing box with compartments, sorted by number. That way, when a pattern calls for 798, you go straight to it.

Organize them in a way that YOU can find them

There are two schools of thought, and both are valid:

• By DMC number: ideal if you embroider following patterns, because you search by number.
• By color families: all reds together, all blues together. More visual and pretty, perfect if you choose the colors yourself.

Neither is better than the other: choose the one that fits your embroidery style.

Tips that make a big difference

• Rings for ongoing projects: put only the colors for the piece you're currently embroidering on a ring. You have everything together and don't have to rummage through the entire box.
• Label even the scraps: those little pieces of thread that are a shame to throw away. A small bag with its number and you can use them for small details.
• Store them away from humidity and sunlight: humidity spoils the thread and sunlight fades the colors over time.

In summary

Bobbin, number written down, and organized box: with that, you're 90% done. A well-organized thread collection is not only practical, but also a pleasure to look at. And when you want to expand it, you have 286 colors waiting for you in our DMC thread chart.