How To Organize Your Yarn: The Best Yarn Storage Ideas For Every Crafter

The best way to store yarn depends on whether you are working from it or keeping it. Yarn you are working from belongs upright in something that lets the strand pull from the center of the skein, beside the chair you knit in. Yarn you are keeping belongs dry, out of the sun, off the floor, and where air can reach it. That is the whole system. The rest of this page is how the knitting baskets and bags our Amish families weave carry it out.

How working yarn stays tangle-free

A skein standing on end, pulling from the middle, does not tangle. The answer has not changed in years: the skeins stand upright in their compartments and the yarn pulls from the middle of the skein out through the hole above it, so there is nothing for it to catch on. That is why the Knitting Basket and the Yarn Barn need no liner.

The Knitting Basket does it with three compartments under a lid with a feed hole above each, and a project side beside them for the needles and the pattern. The Yarn Barn does it with four compartments, a shelf for the project and a drawer for the rest. The bags do it with grommets: four are built into the leather handle of the Knitting Bag, and the Yarn Buddy strap snaps four onto any bag or basket handle you already own.

Amish wicker knitting basket with three yarn compartments under a lid with feed holes — The Knitting Basket: three skeins stand upright, each feeding through its own hole in the lid.

How to store large quantities of yarn

Sort it by what it is for, not by how it looks on a shelf. One open piece holds the project in hand. One lidded piece holds the yarn you will reach for next. A drawer or a chest holds the rest. In our family that is the Vintage Yarn Caddy or a bag for the project, the Knitting Basket for the yarn in use, and the Homestead Knitting Basket, an open 20 inch chest with a lift-off lid, or the Yarn Barn, with its 18 by 11 inch drawer, for the stash. Beyond that, plain lidded baskets sorted by weight or by color keep a big collection findable: bulky in one, fingering in another, so the bulkiest skeins never crush the light ones.

The Yarn Barn, a 20 inch tall Amish knitting organizer with four yarn compartments, a shelf and a drawer — The Yarn Barn: four skeins feed from the top, the shelf holds the project, the drawer holds the stash.

Should you store yarn in plastic bags?

For a trip, yes. For months, no, and never wool. Wool holds moisture and needs air; sealed in plastic it can pick up a musty smell, and a plastic bag is where a moth egg goes unnoticed for a season. Keep wool you are not using in a basket or a lidded box in a dry room, with a cedar block or a lavender sachet nearby, and look through it now and then. A basket breathes, which is the quiet reason knitters kept yarn in baskets long before anyone sold plastic bins.

Is it okay to store yarn in vacuum bags?

Cotton and acrylic, yes, for a while. Wool and alpaca, better not. Compression flattens the loft that makes an animal fiber springy, and a skein can take weeks to recover, if it recovers fully at all. If space forces the choice, vacuum the plant fibers and the synthetics and leave the animal fibers loose in a basket with a lid.

What is the best storage container for yarn?

Three answers for three jobs. For the project you are working on, an open basket or bag with a solid bottom, so it stands beside the chair and comes along when you move: the Vintage Yarn Caddy, the Knitting Bag or the Knitting Project Bag. For the yarn in use, a lidded basket with feed holes, so several skeins feed at once without crossing: the Knitting Basket. For the stash, a chest or a drawer that keeps dust off and still lets air through: the Homestead Knitting Basket or the Yarn Barn. A handwoven wicker basket suits yarn because it breathes and holds its shape under weight; a sealed bin does neither, and a soft fabric bag slumps the moment you set it down.

Homestead Knitting Basket, an open Amish wicker chest with a lift-off lid and wooden feet — The Homestead: one open 20 inch chest under a lift-off lid, for bulky skeins and blankets in progress.

Creative yarn storage ideas, from the people who use ours

A bread basket lid on a project bag. One Project Bag owner wanted a cover between sessions and ordered a large bread basket top in green to match her liner. It fit, and it looks like it was made for it.
The Yarn Buddy on a bag you already own. The strap snaps onto any handle and feeds four skeins, so a market tote or a beach bag becomes a knitting bag for the afternoon.
A knitting chest in the parlor. A customer keeps her Homestead in the small parlor of a 118 year old house, where it holds a blanket in progress with the lid on and reads as furniture.
The caddy on the porch. The Vintage Yarn Caddy is six inches tall with leather handles, so the project rides out to the porch and back in one hand, skeins and hooks together.

How should yarn be stored? The short list

Dry, and out of direct sun, which fades dye. Off the floor. Upright when you are working from it, so it pulls from the center. Sorted by project first and by weight second. Animal fibers with air around them and a cedar block nearby. Everything for one project in one basket, needles and pattern included, so you sit down and start.

What knitters tell us

"The large compartment holds a lot of yarn plus the 3 smaller compartments inside are great to sort all the knitting extras," Charlene wrote of the Knitting Basket in 2020. Mary, in 2021, found hers "sturdy, large AND cat proof." Linda, in 2026, on the Yarn Barn: "This is a very beautiful and practical item that serves its functional purpose perfectly."

Amish wicker knitting bag with yarn feeding through the four grommets in its leather handle — The Knitting Bag: four grommets in the leather handle feed the yarn while you work away from home.

Frequently asked questions

Will yarn in an open basket collect dust?

Yarn you use every week does not sit long enough to matter. Yarn you are keeping for months belongs under a lid, in the Knitting Basket, the Homestead or the Yarn Barn's drawer.

How do I keep moths out of stored wool?

A dry room, a lid, a cedar block or lavender sachet in the basket, and a look through the stash every month or two. Moths find the wool nobody touches.

How many baskets does a yarn collection need?

Most knitters do well with two: one for the project in hand and one lidded piece for the rest. A large stash adds a chest or a drawer, which is what the Homestead and the Yarn Barn are for.

Does yarn need a liner inside a wicker basket?

Not in the lidded baskets, where the skeins stand upright and the yarn pulls from the center. The open pieces and the bags offer a hand-sewn cloth liner as an option.

What about the needles?

Straight needles up to 16 inches stand in the Knitting Needle Organizer, an upright wicker case 17 1/2 inches tall that holds crochet hooks too and comes in the same three trims as the baskets.

Every basket and bag on this page is handwoven by an Old Order Amish family on the Iowa-Missouri border, signed by the weaver who made it, and covered by our lifetime guarantee. The lidded baskets are on the knitting baskets page; the bags and the Yarn Buddy are on the knitting bags page.