Craft Journals: Knit and Crochet Planners and Diaries
Do you use craft journals? Many knitters and crocheters find that they can be not just useful but also a fun extra part of crafting. Knit and crochet planners can help you organize the designs you want to make. You can add the make-alongs that you want to participate in. And you can use knit and crochet diaries to keep notes about your projects, the yarn you’re using, the pattern details, where you’re leaving off if you’re abandoning a WIP for a bit. Moreover, you can keep a craft diary that helps you explore your creative process. So, we’ve rounded up some of the best knit and crochet journals, diaries, and planners for you to check out.
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Craft Journals Make Great Christmas Gifts
If you’re looking for good gifts for knitters and crocheters, craft journals are a terrific choice. So are craft books; see our list of 10 reasons why here. If you agree, then you might also want to check out our posts of:
- The Best 2021 Knitting Books
- The Best 2021 Crochet Books
- Marly’s Craft Books at Leisure Arts
- Granny Square Books
How to Use Craft Journals
There are so many different ways to use craft journals and knit and crochet diaries to enhance your crafting. In Kathryn’s book, “Hook to Heal“, each section of crochet exercises ends with a series of “Yarn for Thought” questions. These are crochet journal questions that help you utilize crafting for personal growth. That’s just one example of how people use these tools.
Other examples include:
- Use a craft planner to track the dates of important events. This might be a blog planner, a series of submission dates for when designs are due, dates for craft fairs and expos you plan to attend, and so on.
- Track your projects in knit and crochet diaries. You might include the pattern (or where to find it) along with the yarn label, notes about where you’re at in the project, etc. This is a great way to stay on top of WIPs. It’s also fun to look back at all that you’ve made.
- Plan your designs in your craft journal. This might include a combination of sketches, notes, yarn options, etc.
- Process your feelings about your crafting. Sometimes we lose our crojo. Writing about it can help.
- Keep a running gratitude list of all of the reasons you’re thankful for crafting.
- Make a list of gifts you want to give. Keep track of the project details in your knit or crochet notebook.
These are just a few examples of how people use craft planners and knit and crochet notebooks.
10 Craft Journals and Knit/Crochet/Yarn Notebooks You Might Want To Buy Today
There are truly so many different types of craft notebooks. Some are just blank books (lined or unlined) that have a crafty message or image on the front. Others have pages that are setup to assist you with planning, organizing, and recording your crafty life. Here are ten craft journals and notebooks for knitters and crocheters that you might enjoy:
1. Hardcover Knitting, Yarn, and Crochet Journal
This 200-page hardcover book, which comes with its own pen, has blank lined pages on one side for your notes. On the right-hand side of each page are spaces to write down the project, recipient, start and end dates, all details of yarn used, hooks or needles used, and the gauge. Plus there’s a square spot to attach a yarn sample.
2. Crochet Journal. Creative Personal Logbook.
Don’t let the simple, but beautiful, cover of this crochet journal fool you. Inside these pages contains all of the sections you need to make notes about every knit, crochet, or design project. Like a bullet journal, it starts with pages where you can log your project number, name, and start date. This makes it easier to find the projects you fill in throughout the craft journal.
Then there are sections for details about each project including yarn details, extra tools needed, pattern source, even project difficulty. This is followed by a page where you can attach yarn samples as well as project photos. This is really a crochet journal but knitters could easily adapt it to their work. Oh, and there are inspirational quotes from crochet designers throughout this craft notebook.
3. Paperback Crochet Project Journal
This crochet project planner is similar in style to the one above. However, it’s a bit simplified or more minimalistic. It begins with a table to list the project name, who it’s for, and the page it’s on in the crochet journal. Then each project page allows you to enter the pattern source, start and end dates, yarn information, and also washing instructions, which is certainly helpful information to have on hand. Then there’s a section to attach a yarn sample and / or label.
4. Vogue Knitting Project Journal
This is not just a terrific project journal. It’s also a guide that really shows you how to best use a craft journal as a knitter. Just take a look at the table of contents, which includes so much more beyond the actual pages where you record your knitting projects:
5. Boye 12-Month Knitting and Crochet Planners
Like the Vogue Knitting Planner, the Boye planners have a lot of additional tips and information. They’re designed as 12-month craft planners, so they have more of a calendar format than many craft journals. These combine monthly layouts with tabbed sections for inventory, reference pages (such as a knit symbols chart), project details, and blank note pates.
You can also purchase these planners on Amazon bundled with yarn to start a project. Furthermore you might want to take a look at the Boye 12 Month Kit Crochet Activity Planner:
This one is unique in that it’s actually a crochet planner with monthly projects already laid out for you. Instead of keeping track of your own unique projects, this is a craft journal that takes you on a journey of projects throughout the year.
6. Knitting Project Notes: My Knitting Stitches Book
This is a fairly straightforward, minimalistic knitters notebook. However, it includes something that not all of the craft journals include: graph paper. Many knitters, especially those working in colorwork techniques, benefit a lot from having graph paper to sketch out their ideas.
Other knitting planners that include graph paper are:
- Knitting Journal: A Notebook For Up To 50 Knitting Projects – Keep Track Of Yarns And Needles
- Crochet & Knitting Project Journal: Log and Keep Track of Patterns, Yarns, Hooks and Needles
- If I’m Sitting, I’m Knitting: Knitting Planner & Journal ~ A Perfect Gift for Knitting Lovers to Design & Keep Track of 60 Designs with Graph Paper & Design Logs
Speaking of which, in addition to purchasing a full craft journal, you might want add this Knitting Colorwork Graph Paper. It has 100 pages of just v-shaped outlines. In comparison to traditional graph paper, these designs look more like stitches. Therefore beginner knit designers might find these pages helpful to work with alongside their regular craft journal.
Alternatively, if you prefer traditional graph paper, then you might like this knitters’ graph paper notebook. Or this Knitting Graph Paper that “contains 55 Pages of 2:3 paper (for regular yarn), followed by 55 Pages of 4:5 paper (for thicker yarn or double knitting)”
7. Crochet Journal Log Book
Like any other journal, you want your craft journal to feel right. Even the cover should inspire you. And isn’t this one pretty? This craft journal has index pages at the beginning like many of the other craft notebooks on this list. Then there are 50 two-page spreads where you can record the details of your project. You can tell when craft journals are actually made by people who craft because they include spots for specific details such as the yarn dye lot. This one has that kind of option plus spaces to include sketches, swatches, and yarn samples. It’s a simple, but effective design. This one is really a crochet journal.
8. Crochet Journal: A Crochet Diary & Crochet Project Planner Notebook
Like many of the other crochet journals, this one has an index page and space to write the details of each project. Additionally, though, it comes with “a lined section for you to record any pattern modifications, notes, and insert a photo of the completed project. You can even use the space to track rows.” There are also some helpful reference pages in this crochet notebook including crochet abbreviations, conversion charts, and yarn weights.
9. My Knitting Journal by Val Pierce
I’m going to let the subtitle tell you more about this craft journal for knitters: “Organize Your Knitting Life: Record Completed Projects and Works-in-Progress, Keep Track of Your Yarn Stash, and Find Quick Reference Information.”
10. Daily Diary/Journal for Knitters with Inspirational Knitting Quotes
This is more the type of journal for people who just want to write about their projects and their craft experience. Rather than tracking every detail of projects (although of course you can write those down as well), this is about the habit of daily journaling with gratitude for your craft. It’s meant as a knitters journal but crocheters could make use of its simple design as well.
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Categories: Crochet, Dibble Dabble Inspiration, Knitting, Product Reviews
