This one is a bit smaller, but so pretty in person. (The pics aren’t doing it justice.) It reminds me of Monet’s Waterlilies. Shades of blue, green, teal, with little flashes of pink and gold. I think it’s about 9"-10" across.
This little one is the most fun. It’s mostly black, with hints of dark purple and gold, and includes a fun metallic cord yarn, and some mohair, which gives it a lot of texture. It went to my mom for Mother’s Day, to match her kitchen. She has a lot of plants, and it can be used to cover a plastic planter, if you put a plastic tray in the bottom. It’s about 8" across.
Gorgeous! The waterlilies are so pretty, I totally see Monet there.
What’s it like to crochet this sort of thing, are you holding tension like in amigurumi? These days my hands ache just thinking about doing any of that. Even a few minutes is too painful. But I have yarn languishing & I would love to make some baskets!
What’s your trick for a flat, even circle base?
You are going for a bit of tension, as you want the basket sturdy. But because you are constantly readjusting your giant pile of yarns, you only do a few stitches at a time, then straightening yarn, few stitches, straightening… For the flat circle, I do a Magic Ring, with 6 single crochets. Increase by 6 stitches each round. (Round 2 is 12 sc, Round 3 is 18, Round 4 is 24.) Instead of increasing in the same spot each time (resulting in a hexagon), change up where you do your increase in each round. Sometimes I do it in the first stitch of a round, sometimes in the 4th, and just count up at the end of each round to make sure you’ve gone up by 6 stitches. Easy peasy.
@Magpie, I almost forgot. When I start the sides of the basket, I do that first round in the Back Loop Only, to get a cleaner turn/break from bottom to side. Then I proceed as she does, working in a spiral with no joins between rounds.
AIMR
(Linda -2026 time to regroup and renew :us:)
9
@magpie, I know Jennie holds together a lot more strands that I do in my baskets. To make mine more sturdy, I do amigurumi stitching, which is basically, YU-YO. Once you get in the rhythm it goes just as fast but makes a much tighter stitch with less strands. I think it is easier on the hands and you have less yarn to wrangle. I also do the increases like she does so as not to get a weird octagon shape on the bottom. And, also, the back loop stitch when you are ready to start the sides.
I just love how you, Jennie, have mastered the color mix to make everything blend so nicely. I love the Monet basket.
I need a zoom to see your techniques, maybe we can have a basket-along in fall? Or another paid crafty session, live or recorded? It was such a nice thing to participate in & I think it raised a little cash for the site?
@AIMR, I’m so sad! Remember how I’ve been mostly making these baskets at the Indoor Playground, with Ada? The playground belongs to a church, which has been open for nearly 20 years. Just after building their play space, they opened it to the public 4 days a week, with very few problems. But in the past few months they’ve had people threatening their staff, and they have found “adult material” left on the playground, so they chose to close it to the public.
Of course I want the staff, and the children to be safe, but I’m heartbroken that a place so many parents have come to rely on, has been closed. I literally looked forward to it every Tuesday, so I could bring my laptop and catch up on LC stuff, and get time to crochet, without Ada trying to mess with my yarn. All while she played happily with other kids, running and climbing, and I could still keep an eye on her. With a bathroom nearby, and no chance of sunburn. There are other places I bring Ada each week like the library, but they don’t allow me a mental break in the same way.
1 Like
AIMR
(Linda -2026 time to regroup and renew :us:)
13
Oh, I am so sorry! You have found so many ways to be able to have some “me” time to craft or do a bit of reading or cooking with Ada…this was one of them!
Are there other ways the church could protect the property? Since they are private, maybe they could have some sort of membership to keep out problematic people?
