Elbow welcome basket with wrapped swing handles

 I just finished this elbow basket, not hard to make but due to my "craft" elbow I have my left arm in a sling which makes it really hard to do anything.  I'm hoping taking medication and resting will help heal my arm so I can get back to crafting and typing normally. This typing with 1 hand is really getting old.

You can get stone buckles and charms but I use the wood shapes from my local craft store and paint them.  much cheaper! they are like .79cents !  I used light blue gray acrylic paint as a base and added speckles with dark blue, added a little shade to the heart then painted the country heart and the word Welcome.    I print out the word in your choice of font and size, trace it onto tracing paper then transfer it onto the painted heart, use a transfer carbon paper, transfer then paint.  I know  It sounds like lots of step, if you rather freehand it please do.  I'm just telling you how I did it.  I also varnished a clear coat after the paint dried to protect my hard work!  I had a incident last week with someone's child drawing on my painted heart, luckily it was done in crayola markers and not a sharpie, it washed right off. 

This pattern I purchased from Willowes basketry and yarn haus and apparently you can get it downloadable pattern, I have not purchased it that way so I don't know how that works but give it a try!

Since I cant give you the pattern, I thought there are people out there who wondered how you wrap a swing handle you make your self.  When I first tried years ago, the instructions was so vague I ended up using glue to keep it in place.  Now I look back on it and wonder why I couldn't figure it out and it is also very possible I'm still doing it wrong but, my basket handles are staying in place, swinging without glue so its OK in my book.

If you want to see how I do it here is a quick tutorial:

 Here is what the handle looks when its done.

 figure out how long you want your handle to be and make sure its soaked well.

Depending on what kind of swing handle you are doing, you will either poke the end through the space below the rim (same space you lash) or if you are using ears, you will inset in  the ears.




 here is a pic of swing handle using ears.

 give your self about 3-4 inches and bend the ends or if you prefer a rounder even handle make sure it over laps and make the ends meet someplace before bending the handle.

Not sure if you can see it but my handle ends meets on the inside, I like the rounder even handles so I overlapped them.




 
Then take a long flat or flat oval reed you are using to wrap soaked well, place it between the handle smooth side or round side down.










 bend the wrapper reed












use clothes pins to hold the overlapped handles and start wrapping! just like you do with any handles! you can add designs if you like or keep it plain.   I kept mine plain since this basket is going on my door.








once you reach the other side where you want to end, bend the reed upward.

make sure you don't unravel but just loosen it and tuck the end into the loose part.

pull it tight, using your finger to tighten one row at a time until its tight and the bent part is under the last row, pull and cut.  No glue is needed if you made sure it was tight!!









If you cut the reed while you pull, you should not see it!  I can't stress enough don't forget to wrap it tight all the way to keep it from loosing up in the future!!









Happy weaving!

treat basket

Between my oldest moving back home to go back to school full time and my youngest being home everyday during spring break just wiped me out and of course my posting suffered as usual.  

But I think I may be on track?? well I'm trying to stay on track! 

 Here is my newest basket I made, not sure what to call it but for now I'm calling it treat basket. its a simple rectangle (my stakes looks a little crooked, maybe it got moved when I was doing the curls) with curls added on at the end after the basket was done.

Here are what you'll need to make one just like it:

5/8FF cut 7 @ 19" and 5 @ 22" mark all on center on the rough side

3/8"FF cut 4 @ 13" for fillers mark all on center on the rough side

#2 or #3 twine 

1/2"FF dyed (I used navy I had laying around)

3/8"FF rim row

1/2" FO Rim

3/16 FO Lashing

3mm FO Curls

 Lay all 5 of the 22" stake horizontally and place the 3/8" filler in between the five stakes.  take 1 of the 19" stake and place it over the stake and under the filler and continue 3 more on each side alternating the weave to make the base like the picture.  Base should be about 8 inch X 5 inch 

  then cut the filler length wise and fold and cut and tuck under the stake next to the last vertical stakes like the diagram.  Twine once using #2 or #3 round, spray down the stakes and upset the stakes.










start weaving the sides:
7 Rows 1/2" Dyed FF
1 Row 3/8" natural FF (rim row)
rim with 1/2" FO
Lash with 3/16" FO

add curls diagonally with 3mm FO soaked well to keep it from breaking and don't forget to keep it wet while you work around the basket.

Here is the reason why I'm calling it the treat basket, because this was made for my cats snacks.  please excuse the background of this picture.  its a lego Jabba's Palace which belongs to my youngest.

if you need help with figuring out how to put the diagonal curl, let me know!

New Double Wine Basket

I saw a basket I really like on line and It became a inspiration for this double wine basket.

I also made another version using the same pattern but used different color and changed the decoration a little to give it a different look.  

You'll need:
5X14" D handle 
5/8" Flat Flat cut 6 @ 27" and 5 @ 30"(stakes)
3/8" flat flat cut 4 @ 13" (filler)
#2 or #3 round natural or dyed (twine for the base)
1/4" Flat Flat natural long piece (divider)
3/16 Flat Flat or Flat oval (lashing)
#3 Sea grass
3/4", 7/8", 1/2",1/4", 3/8" your choice of weaver in your choice of color. Best to use 1/4" or bigger for the weaver so the divider will hide well.

I used 1/2" natural, 1/4" and 3/4" dyed wine red and 3/16" Flat Oval natural for crisscross
the purple one I used 1/2" and 3/4" natural and 1/2" and 1/4" dyed purple and 3/16"Flat Oval for the crisscross decoration and lashing.

My sides are as follows:
2 rows 1/2" flat flat
3 rows 1/4" flat flat
4 rows 1/2" flat flat
1 row  3/4" flat flat
4 rows 1/2" flat flat
3 rows 1/4" flat flat
2 rows 1/2" flat flat

I found this unfinished wooden tag at JoAnn's and painted a cluster of grape to go with the "wine" theme.

 cut all your stakes, mark center on the rough side with a pencil and soak briefly in warm water.

 lay out the five 30" pieces rough side up horizontally leaving about 3/8" space in between, matching the pencil mark, lay your handle vertically on top of the pencil marks.

lay the 3/8" fillers in between the 30" pieces on top of the handle.
now weave the 27" stakes, 3 on each side of the handle.

Base should be about 5"X 8"

cut the filler down the middle to the last stake

  then fold over and tuck like the picture

twine once with #2 or #3 natural or dyed its up to you.  I used natural for the red wine one and for the purple one, I used the same periwinkle as the crisscross and the lashing 

spray down the stakes and upset them.

Start weaving the sides but make sure the first row weaver ends up on the outside for the handle.

 after two rows we'll start the divider.  This is the way I do it, Its my way and it may not the "right" way if there is even a right way and a wrong way, its just my way and  I've done it this way for years and my baskets have not fallen apart so I'm not going to change the way I do this.

Place the end of the long 1/4" flat flat don't matter if its rough or smooth side on the handle.

 hold it with clothes pin to keep it in place.
Some people like to over lap once and you are more then welcome to do that as well but I think it makes it too bulky and the divider pushes out the weaver and its kind of ugly in my opinion.  once you are done with the basket and you are still worry about the divider untucking, you can glue it in place.

 start weaving the 3rd row, I used 1/4"flat flat dyed in purple for this basket. and once you reach the handle you started the divider on,

 move the clothes pin, place the weaver over the divider, hold it with clothes pin until you finish this row.

 Before your weaver reach the other side of the handle, cross the divider to the other side like you are doing half a figure eight making sure you don't twist the divider, then finish this row as you normally do.  the pressure of the weaver should keep the divider in place but for now you can keep the clothes pin on the starting point of the divider if you like. 
weave the next row without moving the divider


 Before you weave the next row, wrap the divider in the figure eight on the both side of the handle.
(the divider is placed under the weaver that is woven outside of the handle)

Sorry bad picture but just wanted to tell you that it might be easier to move the divider around if you keep the end rolled up.

 Continue to weave and move the divider every other row.  make sure that the divider is hiding under a weaver and also make sure that the divider is tight but not so tight that it warps the handle.

 don't place the divider on the top row because that is the rim row and you won't be able to place the rim correctly if you have the divider.

 stick the end of the divider in between the rim row and the one row below, pull it through,  pack down the sides well, cut the inside stakes and fold the outside.

wrap the divider around once and you can tuck it under the stake when you tuck the outside stakes.

 divider to keep the wine from hitting each other.

Rim with 5/8" flat oval, and rim with your choice of lasher, decorate with crisscross if you like with 3/16" flat oval. 

Happy Weaving!  feel free to ask question if you need more direction!

Double wall basket

What have I been doing for last couple of weeks  while I was MIA?  Well, I've been to Detroit to see the Red Wings VS Ducks game (Go! Ducks) and for once my Ducks won against my hubby and son's Red Wings,  then husband got sick (he is a big baby when he gets sick.. he didn't even have a fever but apparently he was dying, it turned out to be sinus infection and he is all better now) Then I was asked to donate a basket for a auction by my son's school's auction and since I also donated last year (I made the brown twill basket on my blog) and it was a big hit, this year I decided to make a basket I truly love and thought it may be something other people would want.   Its a double wall basket called Day and Night written by Karen Griffith I got a kit years ago and had a pattern handy so I ordered my base from basketbees because the size that was called for was no where to be found and I did not realize how hard it was to find a base for double wall basket until I found basketbees. I  also got the braided woven handle from basket patterns.  Here are some info about what to do with a double slotted base if you have never worked with it.

This is double slotted base for double wall basket) it has a two slot

Start off by making the inner basket by inserting on the top slot with smooth side up and weaving the sides with smooth side inside and rough side outside.  hardest thing to do is to remember everything is rough side out!!!
then you finish it like you would do a normal basket but cut and tuck is reversed!!!  cut the stakes on the outside and fold the stakes that are inside the rim row fold out and  tucked in on the outside of the basket. (did that make sense?)

Then you insert the dyed reed into the lower slot, this time rough side up like you would do normally but important to remember to place the stakes on the same place as the inner basket.

Then weave like you normally do but its alto easier because you have the inner basket to use as a mold and you can just weave away without really worrying about is it getting lopsided?  Key is to pack it down as you go so its not a pain in a butt to do it later.  then when you reach the top of the basket, make sure its leveled with the inside wall, then cut the stakes that are inside the rim row and fold cut and tuck the stakes on the outside of the outside wall just like you would a single wall basket.  to tuck in you'll need to spray down the inner basket and push the wall to make room to fit your tools and your hands in but its very easy to do! then rim both wall at the same time adding the leather handle on the outside rim and lash away and you are done!   I'm working on double wine basket tutorial right now and it should be done later today so I will post it later tonight or in the next few days for sure! its my original pattern so I will have instruction! come back and visit soon!