I have been looking for an analog way to keep track of my knitting for a while. I have tried plain notebooks, bullet journals, and ring binders with a page protector pocket to keep each project in. None of them are entirely what I was looking for. So I started looking for knitting-specific journals. There are a ton of these things out there – search for “knitting journal” on Amazon and look at all your results! I chose one at random from Amazon, got one from elsewhere, and pulled one I’ve had from a while from the bottom of the bookshelf where it’s been languishing for my experiment.
The first one and, I think the niftiest, is the Knitter’s Log Book from Space Cadet Yarn.
It has specific areas and prompts for the sorts of things you might want to record about your projects, along with a generous area for notes. Each 2 page spread also has a nice knitting tip on them and cute space cadet art. It also has an index area in the front where you can add the projects and page numbers for easy reference, as well as a number of other features that I think will make it very usable. There is a little video of the notebook features on the Space Cadet yarn hoepage for the curious.
The second is the Knitting Journal that you see top right on the first photo. It likewise has a lot of detail about the yarn and pattern and the sorts of things you would want to record about a project. There’s also a space for a small swatch, which I do not think I would use. I think the book would get pretty darn unwieldy, unless you are cutting these pages out and putting them in a notebook. But there’s no reason this section couldn’t get used for something else anyway. I got this from Amazon pretty recently.
The third and final one is one I have had around for a while, the Knit Notes. I don’t actually remember where I got it, but my sense is it came from our local used book store, Title Wave. It is available on Amazon, though some of the versions of it are at a pretty unreasonable price. I have tried out this journal on previous projects, lured in by the graph paper. However, if I want to design something, I have a nifty program for that, so this doesn’t really do much for me there. It didn’t thrill me when I used it previously, but I’m going to give it a try along with the others and see how I feel about it now.
I’m not sure how to test these things against each other. Use the different books for different types of projects? Record a couple of the same projects in all three of the books and see which is most user friendly? Use one until I’ve used it up and then go to the next? That would make for a pretty long term project, but I do intend to be knitting for a while, so why not.
Do you document your projects at all? What do you do?
Quite A Yarn 
I love the idea of a knitting journal to record projects. But I don’t use that feature on Ravelry regularly so I’m wondering if I would use an analog version. It sounds like fun,though, but I suspect I would fall off the wagon. But maybe it would make me feel more organized, which would decrease my anxiety? I will have a think on it. I hope you are able to discern which one works best for you.
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I love the idea too 🙂 I was pretty regular with it on Ravelry until I stopped doing it there, but not sure if I will keep it up better in the journal. It’s all a process for sure.
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Oh these look a lot nicer than what I do, which is usually to record them in a notebook. Sometimes I track electronically too 👍
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I have tried notebooks too. And I have trouble remembering what is going to be helpful to document, as silly as that sounds. That’s why I’m pretty jazzed about having fields to fill in!
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I love documenting my projects. I usually stick to digital records like ravelry, and my blog to some extent. I purchased Strickmich from Martina Behm. While I really liked it in concept, it was not easy for me to utilize each section.
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I used to use Ravelry but kind of fell away from it. I have pretty much been using my blog as a record for a while, but I don’t record things like needle size or the details of making a project. So I’m hoping a journal will help me with that 🙂
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I am sure it will prove very helpful. I tend to omit needle size on Ravelry because I typically don’t have the knitting nearby when I am on the computer. A notebook would probably reside in one of my knitting bags. It will be interesting to see if any of these help you.
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I will be interested to see if it does too 🙂
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Knit Notes for $72.00 on Amazon? Yikes!
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That one is ambitiously priced! I promise you I did not pay anything like that amount for my version.
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Sometimes I think some of these third party vendors put a crazy price on items in the waaaaay off chance someone will bite.
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I like the Knitting Journal that has the one page summary on the left side and graph paper on the right. Currently, I use a 3-ring binder for storing documents of garments I designed and knitted. I sketch my projects often, and prefer pencil and paper to digital programs.
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Interesting! Do you use knitting-specific graph paper, or just plain graph paper? Sketching can be a good way to work out layout of motifs and so on!
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Plaint graph paper. I prefer to work with four or five squares per inch.
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I really don’t record the info well, but I am going to try that with my quilting using a printed page. I just don’t like collecting paper things, so I likely will just keep it online with minimal recording. LOL!
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That’s a good thought! Are there quilting journals? Maybe you could do a spreadsheet for your years’ projects?
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I want to start documenting them in certain ways as I do use my Ravelry notebook. I think what motivates me is that I want to keep swatches inside with the documentation and to get me going on my “Make Nine.”
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That sounds like a great idea!
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I got behind and read Alissa’s post first and seem to have written a war and peace answer on hers so I won’t ramble here too. Ravelry and scribbles on the printed pattern and A4 scraps of paper is my short answer
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I will have to check out your answer there!
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Okay, I am envious – I want a crafting journal, that would have been awesome to track all the things I’ve made and plan out what I am making next (I now use a white board to write a list to try and stay on track). Great idea!
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Ooo – I’d love to see how you use the white board to keep track of your crafting!
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I found it from a thrift shop and I just list the projects I want to make and then erase them with done (nothing very exciting – ha!). I do have a picture of the white board in this post https://tierneycreates.com/2020/12/19/in-the-studio/
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That is a great idea! Good way to keep track of what is in the works 🙂
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