Knittin' Crap: Stash Reorg Pt 2

Well, I really liked the first set of Space Bags. They really compressed the yarn. The only issue is that yarn balls are lumpy, and so the vacuumed bags were also pretty lumpy. I played some with re-opening and rearranging them, and they got a little flatter.

I went back to the store and got some more. This time I got the new "cubes." I could stick them in one of the bins directly! They did actually work for that. I did lose some "gained" space because of the lumpiness, but I can stick small skeins in some of the gaps. Unfortunately, the cubes seem to be a little poorly made. I did tear one when it got caught without my noticing while I was putting in, post-deflation, into a bin. My fault, but I was a little chagrined that it didn't take much force. I put pieces of clear mailing tape on both sides (it was less than 1") and it seems to be keeping. The other problem was that the blue plastic sliders that help you with the zipper lock don't really work. I would hear air escaping when I turned off the vacuum, and had to go back and re-seal manually multiple times. This had not happened with the original "flat" bags.

That said, I filled all the bags and I have definitely saved a lot of space. I also managed to get the fabric I had in various places, most of which I use for making or lining bags, into one of the extra-large cubes which, once compressed, fit into of the 66-quart bins with some space left for dropping in other sewing notions. I was impressed.

Different yarns compress differently, too. Fiber density and yarn construction affect the compression. I didn't bother taking yarn out to rearrange them after learning all that, but I will pay attention for future packing.

That said, I'd rather have a bunch of the medium-sized flat bags, because I could stack them in the large plastic bins. I only saw them in the flat bag "combo," though, which also has the large and extra-large. Both the cubes fit compressed (as long as the extra-large isn't completely packed) in the bins, but only one at a time, and like I said, they seem less well-made overall.