I am so excited to share with you how to track your yarn projects. This was something I never knew I wanted to do until I saw someone else talk about tracking their projects through the year. The thought had never crossed my mind, but once it was in my brain I really wanted to give it a try! Honestly, it has been such a satisfying thing to do that I knew I had to share it with you!
Intention is Everything
Before you dive into committing to tracking your yarn projects for the year, I would encourage you to think about why you want to track your projects. There are so, so many ways to track your yarn projects. knowing why you want to track them will help you pick the best way to track your projects.
There are lots of reasons to track your yarn projects through the year. You could simply want to know how many projects you start or complete throughout the year. You may want to see how much of your yarn stash you use up. Maybe you have a goal that you are trying to meet and having a way to track your progress will help you better reach that goal.
Tracking your yarn projects can also be a great organizational tool. If you often lose track of what projects you have going on and their details, a tracker could be a great way to be more organized! If this is your goal then you want a more detailed tracker that will help you with all those details.
Yarn Project Trackers
There are as many ways to track your yarn projects as there are reasons to track your yarn projects. Once you have figured out why you want to track your yarn projects, it shouldn’t be hard to find a project tracker that will help you collect the information you want.
Project trackers run the whole spectrum from simple to complex and from very low tech to more techy. While this is not an exhaustive list, you will surely find something here to send you in the right direction! The trackers listed below go in order from most simple to most detailed.
Yarn Band Collection
I’m not talking about music when I talk about collecting yarn bands, haha! No, I’m talking about those narrow pieces of paper wrapped around your skeins of yarn. One of the most simple ways you can track your projects through the year is to simply collect your yarn bands every time you finish a skein of yarn.
Because I can’t seem to commit to any complicated tracking system, this has been my favorite way to track my yarn projects over the last couple years. Every time I finish a skein or ball of yarn, I take the wrapper and, instead of recycling it, I put it in a cute little box. Now, you don’t need to be fancy! When I started collecting my yarn wrappers I simply stuck them in an envelope.
You can make the decision on which wrappers you add to your collection. I choose not to add wrappers where I don’t use most of the skein. Of course that means not all of my projects are represented in my collection of yarn wrappers. Still, I find it very satisfying to watch my collection grow throughout the year and count my wrappers at the start of the next year.
Project Graph
If you want to be sure all of your projects get represented in your yarn tracker, a simple graph may be a great solution for you. Quick and easy to use, a graph is a slightly more detailed, but still a low time commitment way to track your projects.
I’ve created a simple Project Tracker Graph where you can simply draw a bar line or add dots to each month as you complete, or start a project. If you love bullet journaling, you could easily add a project tracker graph to your bullet journal! If you want to keep it extra simple, you can enter your information at the bottom of this post and I will send you a couple free project trackers!
Using a graph style tracker is a great way to visually track the amount of projects you do each month. This can be a great way to see which months you had more time or motivation for crafting.
List Them Out
If you’d like a little more information about each of your projects, but don’t want to take the time to write out all the details, you could track your projects through a list. Keeping a list is a fun way to not only see the number of projects you’ve done in the year, but also what those projects were.
There’s no need to be super fancy with your list, though that’s obviously up to personal preference, you could keep it as simple as listing the names of patterns you make in a notebook or notes app of your phone. I like the idea of also listing the date a project is started and a date a project is finished. To me, knowing how long certain projects take me, helps me to plan better in the future and be more realistic about how long it might take me to make that sweater or other project!
Depending on if you prefer physically writing things down, or keeping digital files, you can either write your list out by hand or keep it in a notes app on your phone. I’ve created a fun printable Project Tracker List. You can get it for free by entering your email at the bottom of this blog post.
Calendar
If you want to keep a list of your projects, but don’t want to add another piece of paper, or an app to your life, you could add your finished projects to your calendar! Whether you’re a paper calendar person, like me, or someone who uses a digital calendar, you can add a simple note to your calendar when you finish a project.
If you use a paper calendar, it might be fun to use a special colored pen for your finished projects or add a fun sticker next to each of them. Having that special visual will help them stand out and will make it easier to spot them if you would like to flip back through your calendar and tally up all your projects at the end of the year.
I’ll admit I am untrusting of digital calendars and therefore don’t use one, but I imagine it would be super cool to list your projects with certain title or note note. Then, if your calendar is fancy, you could search for all of your problems your projects too to scroll through all you’ve accomplished at the end of the year.
Details, Details and More Details
If your intention for tracking your yarn projects lean more towards organization, you will probably want a more detailed way to keep track of your projects. I have a low tech and a high-tech recommendation for this.
If you are more of a pen and paper kind of person, I recommend keeping a project journal. You can decide what kinds of details you would like to add to each journal entry depending on what you want to track. You will want to be sure to keep the details that help you meet your purpose for keeping the journal. You can write down details such as what yarn you use, what hook or needle size you met gauge with, any changes you made to the pattern. You can even journal about how you felt about the finished project or anything else you might like to look back on.
If you want to go more high-tech, I highly recommend using Projects on Ravelry. If you aren’t familiar with Ravelry I recommend checking it out. It is free to use and has all sorts of really handy tools. The makers of Ravelry have thought of all the things and have all sorts of preset places for you to add lots of details for each of your yarn projects. Keep in mind, you only have to use what you find to be helpful. Don’t let all of those details overwhelm you, especially if you don’t find them helpful! If you’ve never added a project to Ravelry before, I have a full tutorial on how to do it. Check out this video for a step-by- step tutorial on how to add a project to Ravelry.
I hope I’ve helped you find the perfect way to track your yarn projects this year! I encourage you to stay focused on why you’re tracking your projects so you keep moving in the right direction. If you ever feel yourself becoming overwhelmed, take a step back and maybe move to a more low key way to track your projects. This is all about fun, not stress! Happy tracking!
