For those of us missing the extra-fine motor skills and eagle eyes required to put crimps on 26AWG stranded wire (or for teams with relatively inexperienced electrical students) Pololu (
www.pololu.com) sells pre-crimped individual wires in 6 lengths, 2 gauges (22 & 26) and 10 different colors. They also sell crimp connector housings in a very wide variety of configurations, so you can custom build PWM, encoder, or any kind of signal or low power cable without making a single crimp! The pre-crimped connectors just snap into the housings (and are easily removable if you make a mistake or your requirements change). While the wire costs may be a little more than buying raw spools, you can't beat the convenience and simplicity. And the connector housings are dirt cheap - just pennies apiece.
If you need to make custom length cables in a size other than what they sell (6 different lengths - from 3" up to 60"), it is very easy to splice and solder the cables in the middle rather than recrimping the ends.
(Disclaimer: I have no relationship to this site or this business, other than being a loyal and satisfied customer!)