baskets update #2

I'm at it again. I like using a single strand of yarn and tying together as you weave (the yarn is easier to work with than the plastic bag strips). This is the same basket I did yesterday with the three strands and glad I didn't glue them down or anything - took it apart and weaved as far as I could with the red, tied the white and wove around; tied the blue and wove around - I think it turned out pretty cool and just think how creative you can get with the different colors of foam and the different colors of yarns out there - If anyone is interested in the patterns for the baskets (small and large), I've placed them on my website under the craft tab page. You are welcome to print off and use for any crafting time you would like. Let me know which you like better - working with multiple colors as one in a kind of layered fashion or with single strands and weaving until you need to tie another piece to continue. I'd love to hear from my readers who have tried the craft and with different colored foam and yarn - drop me a line at my email addy (in my profile) - Mrs. E :)


While uploading this picture, I came up with another idea - which I think is going to look pretty cool, so as soon as I do that, I'll definitely post.

Basket weaving update

Way back in the fall of 2010, I showed my basket weaving crafts which goes with State of Successes. Last week before heading to Geofest, I had an idea about the baskets, What about using yarn for the weaving instead of plastic bag strips or the raffia as suggested on the original pattern. I bought some yarn Monday while out - red, white and blue of course. This is done on a yellow circle but I think on a white, red or blue background this will look awesome - what do you think? I did think of getting some yellow/green varigated yarn to work on the yellow and green circles (yellow and green basket from A Tisket A Tasket or even for the spring colors - some pastels worked on some pastel colored foam for Easter).

As you can see from this view - I'm not sure what to do with the tails - starting and ending (I've not snipped the yarn for an ending tail yet), but am thinking of somehow weaving over the starting tail but that still leaves what to do with the ending tails of the yarn. Any suggestions? Leave a comment with what you would do with the tails.




This is the bottom or outside of the basket.

On this particular one, I used all three colors keeping them in a layered fashion, so I got three times around completely - with three layers on the inside and outside from my starting point to ending point. If you want to just a single colored yarn, you should get more layers on the weaving. Maybe I'll do a couple of samples with one color and two colors so everyone can see what they will look like. Just remember to pull taut so as to form the basket but not too tight that your weaving material slips off the tops. You probably can use some tacky glue as you go along to keep the yarn in place if you feel the need. I may try some with the tacky glue or may just leave them alone. I'll let you all know what I do as I play around with the different ways to do these baskets.

They will make a great mother's day gift for mom's rings or whatever she would like to put in them. They will make cute mini Easter baskets in the pastels. I think even around the holidays to do them in the fall colors would be a cute idea. I'll do some each season with the different colors and go from there. Hope you enjoy. If you do them in a color of your choice, how about letting me know and showing me what you came up with. You can email me an image of your basket and give me permission to post your picture, First name Last initial and where you are from - thanks everyone.

Leave a comment - maybe I'll get brave and do an actual video of me weaving the circles; just have to think about that since you wouldn't actually see my face - lol. I think this will be a fun craft for anyone.

Basket making? State #5 has it

I finally finished writing state #5 (yay me and I'm sure Vivian is happy about it). So it's off to my editor friend before I can send to Vivian for the 4RV editors to work on. I have to sort of print out a version to decide which clues to use as discussion questions in the back of the book and which to use for the study guide. I was marking which would make quick discussion questions and forgot about the basket making clue. So I decided to use that as an extra activity in the study guide. I have had fun making my two different sized baskets thanks to a pattern from MakingFriends. The pattern is actually for a Girl Scout Thinking Day swap. I've enlarged the basic pattern to use with a large foam circle that I had purchased from Walmart. The circles came like 40 in a pack and were all colors. All I have left are a couple of pink ones and one orange one. So I took the smaller pattern and cut a small circle from the orange large circle to make the original sized basket.

The directions call for raffia which I don't have any on hand, so I found some ribbon (like the ribbon that is not cloth) and tried it first on the larger basket but it wasn't working too well. So I picked up a yellow plastic grocery bag and cut a couple of strips off the sides where the handles were and used that for my weaving material. Turned out pretty good on both the small and large one.

If you want to know how to make baskets, you'll have to wait until the fall of this year to get State #5 and the accompanying study guide. Pictures below.






From this large circle (as you can see that is on a standard piece of paper, so the circle is pretty large).












To this. (Notice the first top view is not as neat as the second top view because I decided the first time doing this was sloppy. I undid the basket and decded to start twisting the strips of plastic bag to make it tighter so it was a bit easier to work around. It took me the original two strips and two more to do the final version. The strips were cut from the sides where the handles are and cutting open the handle once the strips were cut, so I actually had a pretty long strip and as I ended with one strip, I tied another to it and trimmed the ends so it doesn't look too bad. This is a good recycled project. I'm also going to pick up some raffia from Dollar Tree and/or Walmart (because I know they have it in different colors and then I'll pick up some foam packs with multicolors and perhaps make the baskets in varying colors. I think the raffia should work like the bags did in that I can make it tight and there will be more layers of weaving. When I accomplish this, I'll post the finished projects.)












From the large circle and the small basket pattern, I cut the circle and this is what we ended up with.










Comparison views of the baskets side by side (as best as I could put them and take the picture since I seem to move slightly and cause blurry pictures).




Hope you all enjoy the baskets and come back in the summer when state #5 will be released.


I'm also hoping that now that the book is finished I'll have a cover soon, and that #6 will not take me as long to write as this one did and I'll get it submitted and ready to go with a cover for that one. When I have covers for the next two books, I get a new bookmark with #4, 5 and 6 on it. Looking forward to sharing new covers with you all too.