Crafting Journal How-To

Could you benefit from having a craft journal? Keeping crafts organized, stash busting, and completion of UFOs (unfinished objects) are all first world problems, but bear with me for a few moments...

The vicious cycle of crafter’s hell goes something like this: Interestà experimentationà boredomà abandonmentà guilt (byproducts: disgust, a pile of frogged yarn).

I started a craft journal about a year ago, and it has helped me overcome all of the problems previously stated, plus more!

READ ON FOR SOME IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO USE A CRAFT JOURNAL...

A CRAFT JOURNAL CAN BE HELPFUL IF YOU:

ü     Design/write your own patterns

ü     Wake up at 1:00am with brilliant craft/pattern ideas

ü     Are fickle about patterns/themes/ideas and lose interest in them quickly

ü     Have a lot of UFOs (unfinished objects) (aka incomplete crafts)

ü     Make craft notes on scrap/loose paper and then lose them

ü     Want to plan your work on paper to minimize experiment frogging (swatching doesn’t count! ALWAYS SWATCH!)

ü     Are shopping for yarn/supplies for a particular project

ü     Are visual and like to think with pictures/diagrams

Ways to use your Journal

1) Number your pages. If an older idea on page 5 of your journal rekindles your interest, and you happen to be on page 63, simply make a note on page 63 above the entry that says “ref. to pg 5 for original idea/draft 1” etc.

2) If you don’t have your journal with you, and make notes on scrap paper, just tape/paste them in later.

3) Stick envelopes on the inside front/back covers to store ball bands, yarn samples, receipts, LYS business cards, shopping lists, coupons, etc.

4) Use Post-it flags to mark pages with projects that you are currently working on.

5) If making a variation of/altering another designer’s pattern, write the name of pattern(s) and designer(s) next to entries in a different colour so you don’t forget what your notes refer to.

6) The math behind your pattern: Calculating yardage, stitch gauge, finished measurements, etc.

7) To delete information, don’t rip pages out that may have good stuff on the other side. I tape things over them, but more often I select an ‘editor’s colour’ and draw neat diagonal lines over the entire space occupied by the entry. (Red is a great colour for this).

Important! You don’t need to be an artist to keep a craft journal. You just need to be able to write and create diagrams that make sense to you.

It would be great if your journal can fit into your bag to take along when you go shopping.