Book Review: The Joy of Yarn (Plus a Peek at My Stash!)

Is your stash out of control? Between a cross-country move and consolidating all of my yarn - knitting, weaving, millspun, and handspun...things were getting a little messy over here.
I'd seen a lot of positive reviews of Marie Greene's new book, The Joy of Yarn: Your Stash Solution for Curating, Organizing, and Using Your Yarn. As the force behind Olive Knits, Greene certainly has a lot of yarn to contend with on a day-to-day basis. 

I was curious to see what she had to say, so I used a bunch of those "digital credits" Amazon has been handing out, and bought a Kindle copy for a whopping $2.36. Honestly, I'm glad I didn't spring for a physical copy of the book - it's a little bit Marie Kondo, and a little bit The Home Edit, plus it reminded me of a smattering of other organizing books I've read over the years, like Decluttering at the Speed of Life.

Essentially, Greene asks you to identify all your yarn stash hiding spaces. You'll figure out how much square footage they take up, and how much of your rent or mortgage is paying for yarn storage. Then you'll decide  how much space you can afford/want your stash to use, and pare down your stash from there.

Greene offers several different ways to organize your remaining stash: by color, weight, or project. She encourages readers to get away from those big plastic bins, and to organize by color. Next, you'll inventory your yarn by making a spreadsheet noting essential details like fiber, color, and yardage. You'll use that information to decide which yarns stay, and which yarns go, and she guides you through ideas for rehoming yarn you're ready to let go of.

Greene has ideas for keeping your stash tidy over time, protecting it from pests, working with frogged yarn, and what to do with works in progress. Lastly, Greene offers 10 patterns that are designed to help you work with stash yarn, especially those odds and ends that build up over time. If you've never used different types of yarn together, or are flummoxed by what to do with yarn scraps, this is a really great resource to start with!

The Joy of Yarn is a beautifully edited and photographed book, and it certainly challenges the reader to do some real work to truly get their stash under control. My favorite suggestion was to use magazine file boxes as yarn storage. This helps to utilize vertical space on my shelves while keeping those unruly hanks from spilling out all over the place. 


One pitfall of the book was that it seemed to encourage you to go out and buy a whole new storage system, instead of using what you have. The result is something that’s Instagram-ready, but that ultimately adds to more waste and more expenses.

I also felt like the book offered snapshots of different systems rather than showing any one whole storage system. If that's something you're looking for, then I'd highly recommend Love Your Creative Space: A Visual Guide to Creating an Inspiring & Organized Studio Without Breaking the Bank.

In the The Joy of Yarn, Greene recommends people organize their stash by color. The advantage of that system is that it's pretty, but I think it really only works for knitters and crocheters. Why? Because of the looped structure of knit and crochet stitches, the consequences of mixing different weight yarns or different fibers are fairly low.

With weaving, it's still possible to mix weights and fibers, but it needs to be done carefully - otherwise differential shrinkage can occur with surprising (and sometimes disastrous) results!

Instead, I organize my yarn by fiber, then weight, then color, since that's how I tend to look for yarn in my stash.

I'm a big fan of IKEA for stash shelving. My current stash is organized in IKEA IVAR shelves, which offer lots of flexibility and customization.