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Woolly Basket
Every tool deserves a home. What better way to corral your fiber gadgets than in a handspun, handknitted basket? This project recipe from the Summer 2020 issue adapts easily to your own yarn and storage needs. Make a flock of them in different breeds!
As a spinner and a scientist, I find fiber animals endlessly thrilling. With the amazing diversity of breeds around the world and the great variety of fibers available, there is always more to learn. Over the years, my collection of fiber has been growing and includes lock samples, skeins, and swatches, as well as descriptions and pictures of sheep breeds and other fiber animals. I consider it to be a kind of gallery.
For quite some time, I’ve been thinking about how to design a quick, useful, and beautiful textile project that could help make breed explorations accessible and enjoyable. One day, the idea of a handspun container made of the very fiber that it should contain popped into my mind. When I pack fiber samples for workshops, demonstrations, and events, I usually pack them in bags and boxes, taking care that everything stays together. A handspun basket would be just the thing!
Sabine washed and prepared Coburg Fox fleece and knitted several swatches to try different needle sizes. Read more about spinning red sheep breeds and find the woolly basket recipe in the Summer 2020 issue of Spin Off. Photo by Matt Graves
Planning a Woolly Basket
With a five-sided, open-top box in mind, I thought about knitting, crocheting, Tunisian crocheting, or weaving that shape. All of these methods would work well, but I tried knitting first. No matter which technique I chose, creating flaps that would be sewn together would add extra structure.
As a spinner and a scientist, I find fiber animals endlessly thrilling. With the amazing diversity of breeds around the world and the great variety of fibers available, there is always more to learn. Over the years, my collection of fiber has been growing and includes lock samples, skeins, and swatches, as well as descriptions and pictures of sheep breeds and other fiber animals. I consider it to be a kind of gallery.
For quite some time, I’ve been thinking about how to design a quick, useful, and beautiful textile project that could help make breed explorations accessible and enjoyable. One day, the idea of a handspun container made of the very fiber that it should contain popped into my mind. When I pack fiber samples for workshops, demonstrations, and events, I usually pack them in bags and boxes, taking care that everything stays together. A handspun basket would be just the thing!
Sabine washed and prepared Coburg Fox fleece and knitted several swatches to try different needle sizes. Read more about spinning red sheep breeds and find the woolly basket recipe in the Summer 2020 issue of Spin Off. Photo by Matt Graves
Planning a Woolly Basket
With a five-sided, open-top box in mind, I thought about knitting, crocheting, Tunisian crocheting, or weaving that shape. All of these methods would work well, but I tried knitting first. No matter which technique I chose, creating flaps that would be sewn together would add extra structure.
[PAYWALL]
I had just spun some three-ply yarn from a German breed that I love, the Coburger Fuchsschaf or Coburg Fox sheep, so I set to knitting a basket based on my initial sketch. It worked very well and was fun, quick, and easy, with options for varying the proportions, pattern stitches, and so on. I kept adjusting the pattern, trying different wools, and spinning different yarn structures. I usually had a basket in my backpack, working on it when I had some minutes to wait during the day.
Now I make these baskets for different breeds of sheep and other lovely fiber animals, and even for individual animals that produced my fiber. The baskets are filled with the little things that help to understand a breed: some locks, small skeins, swatches, a piece of felt, and pictures of the animals in their environment. The baskets now fill and inspire my working space. I enjoy them very much.
Sabine made this basket from Coburg Fox locks. Photo by Matt Graves
Fiber Preparation
The fleeces contained some vegetable matter. After washing the locks or part of the fleece in a net bag, I flick carded most of the locks before handcarding. That removed part of the red kemp of the Coburg Fox sheep. If you want to work with roving, batts, combed top, or whatever, that’s fine, too.
Spinning Notes
When spinning for this basket, I didn’t attempt to spin a specific gauge but simply did what felt right for the fiber. After trying both woolen and worsted draws, I decided on worsted to make a stronger yarn.
A three-ply yarn makes a versatile and sturdy option suitable for this project, and I decided to include both a traditional three-ply and a chain-plied yarn. Chain-plied yarn, knitted in stockinette stitch, shows the lovely color transitions of this breed. I knitted the shorter sides with a traditional three-ply in garter stitch. You can choose other yarns that have some strength, such as four-ply or cabled yarns; if the yarn is too soft, the basket will not stand.
Materials
Fiber 2½ oz prepared Coburg Fox locks.
Yarn 3-ply; 90 yd; 660 ypp; 9 wpi; worsted weight.
Needles Size 2½ (3 mm). Adjust needle size if necessary to obtain the correct gauge.
Notions Tapestry needle.
Gauge 20 sts and 28 rows = 4" in St st.
Finished Size 3¼" long × 5" wide × 4¼" tall.
Notes
- This basket begins as a rectangle divided by ridges into three sections: side, bottom, and side. Smaller rectangles are added to each side of the bottom to form the remaining two sides.
- The simple construction encourages play with pattern stitches (moss stitch, seed stitch, etc.), cables, different cast-ons and bind-offs, and so on.
Figure 1 Red lines indicate side seams.
Basket
Side
CO 25 sts.
Work 6 rows in k1, p1 rib.
Work 23 rows in St st.
Folding ridge row (WS) Knit.
Bottom
Work 23 rows in St st.
Folding ridge row (WS) Knit.
Side
Work 23 rows in St st.
Work 6 rows in k1, p1 rib.
BO all sts in patt.
Short sides (make 2)
With RS facing and working along selvedge edge of bottom, pick up and knit 21 sts between folding ridges.
Work 23 rows in garter st.
Work 6 rows in k1, p1 rib.
BO all sts in patt.
Finishing
Sew side seams. Weave in ends.
A. Sabine Schröder-Gravendyck, DVM, makes her home on Germany’s North Sea coast, where she works as a naturalist and educator in sustainability and ecology. She is always looking for new ways to help people merge their personal spaces with nature. You can find more about her on her website, www.florafauna.pro.
