How to Organize Knitting Needles with Easy Household Items

When I first started knitting, I only had one pair of needles and a couple balls of yarn. But as every knitter knows, over time, the collection of both yarn and needles starts to grow. It can be very easy to lose track of needles or to have them end up in a jumbled mess, especially when you have a lot of needles​. 

For today’s blog post, I thought it would be helpful to dive into some different methods you can use to store knitting needles​. This post will be divided into different sections for circular needles and straight needles/double pointed needles.

This post contains affiliate links, which means if you choose to buy something through those links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I will always identify affiliate links for you. Thanks for supporting my work!

Circular needles

Circular needles can often be the trickiest to keep organized. That’s because these needles have long cords between the needle tips, and those cords can get tangled and bent and snarled around each other. If you’re not careful, these kinds of needles can create a terrible mess.

But there are lots of good ways to avoid that! Here are some of my favorite techniques for circular needle storage. 

Hanging file organizer

If you’ve worked in an office, you have probably seen one of these metal hanging organizers (affiliate link). They are usually used for manila folders, often in medical facilities and office cubicles.

But they could be great for knitting needles, too! Your circular needles can be sorted by size and put into folders in these hanging organizer. This keeps them off your desk but also keep them from taking up unnecessary space on your shelves. ​

That’s space that could otherwise be used for yarn, which is always at a premium but especially so i fyou don’t have a dedicated craft room and need to maximize every bit of space you can. We always want more space for yarn.

Shoe organizer​

Like the hanging metal file organizer, an over-the-door shoe organizer (affiliate link)​ can be a great way to organize lots of different sizes of circular needles. if you have a clear organizer, you can label the front of each section with the size and then pop your needles into the corresponding shoe slot. Each needle size gets its own pocket.

The whole organizer then hangs over the back of the door, which again helps keep the knitting needles from taking up too much space elsewhere. Hanging storage is vastly underrated.​

Box with Ziploc Bags​

Resealable plastic bags (affiliate link) are some of the best organizational tools around, and they really shine when it comes to keeping your circular knitting needles organized. That’s because a zippered bag is a great way to corral those pesky cords and keep them coiled up as they were in their original packaging. Each needle gets its own case, and you can either write the needle sizes on the outside of the baggie using a permanent marker or insert an index card with essential details into the bag with the needles.​

Then, all the bags get popped into a box to keep them in one spot. I like to use a gray lidded box that I bought from Ikea ages ago. The lid makes it stackable and keeps other things from getting dumped into the box willy nilly. Can you tell I’m a little chaotic? Sometimes I have to use strategies like box lids to force myself to stay more organized by making it less convenient to be disorganized​.

Binder with clear inserts

One of my favorite methods for organizing circular knitting needles is a three-ring binder with stiff pieces of card stock inside page protectors. These page protectors are clear, so you can easily see which needle is inside each peach protector, and the card stock helps keep the pages from flapping and sagging too much. 

With this method, you can organize your needles so that each individual set of circular needles has its own little spot. You can then put them in size order, and it makes it really easy to find everything when you need it. You can also have separate page protectors for a needle gauge and spare cords for your interchangeable needles.

Straight and Double-Pointed Needles

While I don’t use straight knitting needles very much anymore, I definitely still have some, and I like to keep them organized. The challenge with straight needles, which will be exacerbated even more by double pointed needles, is that it is very easy to lose one of the two needles. That means you need to figure out how to keep them together, or if they’re going to be separated a little bit, they’ll still be in a container where it will be easy enough to find the mate again.

Jars, Vases, and Pitchers

One of my favorite tools for straight needles and DPNs is an old jar. Depending on how many needles you have, you might want to use a few different jars so that you can group together needles of similar sizes. For example, you might want one jar with all of your double pointed needles in sizes one through three, and then another jar with your double pointed needles in sizes four through six, and so on. Try mason jars if you’re feeling a little rustic or spaghetti sauce jars for the really long needles.

If jars are a little boring for you, try vases, cut glass tumblers, or something else. You can get these for relatively cheap at thrift stores and yard sales.

Silverware Organizers

You know those handy​ drawer organizers (affiliate link) for your silverware, with different slots for spoons and forks and knives? Well, it turns out they work rather well for keeping your knitting needle collection organized, too. These organizers have several compartments in different sizes, so you can group your needles together, and most have a lengthy compartment for servingware that would also work well for longer needles.​

Ribbon Bundles

And finally, you can bundle your needle sets together with a ribbon or some scrap yarn, and then pop them into a box. While you can use a rubber band or hair tie for this, rubber bands and hair ties both do break down over time. That means if you are planning to store these needles for a while, you may want something that won’t disintegrate. Rubber bands also have an unfortunate habit of leaving behind a sticky residue as they deteriorate. That’s really not something you want on your knitting needles. A ribbon or a bit of scrap yarn will be much less likely to cause long-term damage to your needles.

Another Option: Specially Made O​rganizers

If you like the idea of getting a special organizer instead of just using something you have around the house, I’ve got you covered there, too. There are a lot of really talented makers out there creating different kinds of tools for keeping knitting needles organized. You can find hand sewn booklets with clear zip pouches and roll up cases for needles all over Etsy. Here are some links to a few of my favorite makers ​whose products I have bought before and would recommend again. 

Atelier de Soyun (affiliate link) makes gorgeous needle rolls and other organizers for your craft projects. I bought a knitting needle case from her in 2012 and still use it regularly. That’s the pink needle roll you see in the photos for this post.

Five to Six Organized Knits sews bags with special inserts for needles, as well as other organization tools for knitters and crocheters. I bought her organizer for interchangeable sets and adore it. That’s the floral zippered bag you see in the photos for this post.​

Rows and Seams (affiliate link) made my all-time favorite project bag, a custom bag with a delicate floral fabric and pink linen lining that I sourced myself. I love it so much that I’ve just ordered another of her bags. Elena also makes needle cozies and other tools to keep your needles organized.

There are as many ways to organize knitting needles as there are knitters out there, so I’m sure there are some clever solutions that I haven’t heard of and therefore haven’t covered here. If you have other helpful techniques for organizing your needles, I’d love to hear about them!

---

Let’s stay connected! 

Join my newsletter for 30% off all new releases, regular updates with helpful tips and tricks, first crack at registration for upcoming workshops, exclusive discounts, and more.

Join the A Bee In The Bonnet Facebook Group to participate in knitalongs and other fun community events

Come hang out with me on the A Bee In The Bonnet TikTok

Follow along on the A Bee In The Bonnet Instagram

Get inspired via the A Bee In The Bonnet Pinterest