DIY Yarntainer

Hello! Thank you for venturing over to Bread & With It for some awesome DIY Yarntainer inspiration. For those of you that are following my posts and possibly concerned about our family… we are on antibiotics and glad for it! After weeks of being sick, our family doctor informed us that we had a heaping dish of sinus infection topped with a dollop of ear infection. Not what I would recommend you try, especially if you have young children and a busy schedule. Whew! At least we will be on the mend here, very soon.

Now, let’s get serious people. I was doing my weekly stroll through Jo Ann’s the other day, (It’s become a second home for me, since they just built one by my house, and homeschool moms qualify for Jo Ann’s 15% teacher discount. These are all things that make me very happy.) and I came across the famous Yarntainer. The Yarntainer is seriously one of the best inventions I’ve seen in a long time.
Of course I bought one. I’ve seen many overpriced handmade clay bowl versions, but this was a practical alternative. Not only is it great for keeping your yarn from rolling across the floor and collecting dust, dirt, animal hair, or in my case a 1 and 1/2-year-old attacking it, but it’s perfect to just toss your hook and pattern into while you are out and about. I saw Leila at our homeschool group walking around with one of these. She just tucked it under her arm while knitting, then tossed her WIP (work in progress) into the lid when she needed to help with the kids. I do not regret spending $10 on this. It was worth every penny.

When I came home, I showed it to Emma. She loved it! She was the first one to use it, then the second and third… I’m sure you get the idea. I didn’t get to use it at all before finally snapping. Even the most patient moms lose their patience. For me it was over a $10 piece of plastic designed to make my life easier. I firmly informed her that if she wanted a Yarntainer that she would have to buy one, like I did!

Being the crafty girl I raised her to be, she did one thing better than that. She made her own! I don’t know why a DIY Yarntainer didn’t pop into my mind when I first saw this thing. I immediately saw the usefulness of it and neglected to notice how easy and cheep it would be to make one and instead use my $10 for more yarn. 

She grabbed a couple of pickle jars and a large plastic peanut butter jar, and with Micheal’s help she drilled a hole in the lids. Instantly she made $30 with worth of Yarntainers. It literally took 5 minutes. If you decide to make these with metal lids, I highly recommend sanding down the edges though, as they may be sharp. You don’t want to cut yourself, or worse… your yarn! Also consider purchasing an inexpensive Rubber Grommet to hammer into the hole.

From here you can leave it how it is, or if you want you can paint the lids, glue on ribbon, googly eyes and decorate as you see fit. I wish I had thought of this before spending $10 on my Yarntainer…