Hemp Basket

Pattern/Technique: Basket weaving workshop by Flax & Twine via The Crafters Box

Modifications: none

Materials: 1 ball hemp twine, 1 ball woolen spun linen yarn (both provided in kit)

New skills: stitched basket construction

Lessons: How/where you stitch the basket influences the stability: I misheard the video and initially stitched to the left of each stitch (down through the front of the basket), which made an interesting coil pattern (and a really pretty feather pattern on the reverse) but as I increased the number of coils the outside started getting loose. I ripped everything back and used the actual technique in the video, which was to stitch to the right of each previous stitch (coming up from the back of the basket) which gave a more subtle feathering visual effect, and was more stable as the number of coils increased.

I noticed that the 18-20 coils were quite loose, so I went back and tightened the anchor stitches to snug up the coils. However, on row 21 you're supposed to tightly stitch all around the coil, and the width of the linen yarn actually snugged up the coils more and made the center of my basket slightly concave. In the future, I should not do any extra work to make the coils tighter before a densely stitched coil.

The linen yarn sheds and thins quite a bit, and if it looks like it's about to break it's totally fine to start with a new length.

When switching strands of linen yarn, weave in the old end in the next line of anchor stitches (and start the new strand in the same line) to keep the anchor stitches looking consistent.

When binding off the basket, you can do a set of 3-4 wraps with the linen yarn to secure the twine, then either weave in the end in the 3-4 wraps you just made, or a line of anchor stitches.

What I'd do differently: I think I may have held my yarn too slanted in the section where I started creating the basket shaping, and ended up with sides that were a little too curved, so I ended up binding off earlier than suggested. I'm really happy with how this first basket looks, but if I make a larger one in the future, I'd use a gentler slant in the shaping section so that I can get a large, shallow bowl.

Care: spot clean

Crocheted Raffia Basket

Pattern/Technique: Crocheted Raffia Basket by Anne Weil (part of a kit from The Crafters Box)

New skills: crocheting around another material

Lessons: The optimal thickness of the raffia bundle seems to be roughly the same diameter (maybe even a bit larger) than the crochet hook.

It's quite challenging to keep even tension on the working yarn while also holding a core material--particularly one that needs to be bundled tightly like raffia. Manipulating the material, while trying to insert the crochet hook into the linen loops and avoid snagging raffia hurt my hands, so I ended up cutting this project short and doing 1/3 of the recommended number of coils.

I noticed that the coil of the basket can be manipulated to be flat or very steep/conical. It's unclear whether this is endemic to this style of basket, or due to some issue with my tension.

What I'd do differently: The technique is quite interesting but trying to keep an even core of raffia was a challenge, and manipulating the crochet hook was physically painful over time. If I attempt a crocheted basket again, it with a more uniform core material like cotton rope, and one of my soft grip crochet hooks vs. the wooden hook included in the kit.