I bought the rope ages ago but for some reason I was a bit nervous about starting.
I had some gorgeous Sublime tweed dk (wool/cotton blend) and started 3 times. Each time I tried to pull the magic circle tight it broke - lesson, use a robust yarn for this basket!
Fell back on my stash of LovesYou5. Not the colours I had planned, but nice enough.
The yarn is held double so using cotton Aran and working it tight is quite hefty

13 September 2016

Ooh, this is hard on my fingers. I think that because the yarn is recycled and a bit rough, it is quite difficult to pull through. However I want a nice shape and a not a floppy bag so I need to make the stitches tight.
My base is slightly wavy so for my 8th and 9th rounds I did no increases to pull it back in. It was still wavy so I pushed and pulled and manipulated it flatter :)
I stopped the base rounds when it got to 12”. I want this big enough for WIP but not so unwieldy that it’s a pain to move around!

16 September 2016

I found going round and round easier at the dining table using my whole arm. It made pushing and pulling easier and it was much easier to keep the basket even.
I’ve stopped vertically when I got to 7”. I figure that the handle round will add nearly another inch - I don’t want to be rummaging in a basket that’s too deep. Not that I’m fussy at all!!

21 September 2016

My top seemed a bit ‘unfinished’ (I am a total neat freak) so I went around with crab stitch using one strand of yarn. Much better!
I have gone against everything I’ve done before by decorating my basket in a girlie way. So far I’ve made some hearts from A Creative Being and some flowers from Attic24. Not attached yet, just playing.

22 September 2016

Made a few leaves from Lucy again (thank you Lucy!) and I have called this finished. It is robust and pretty (even if it is not the tweedy autumnal basket I planned, lol).
I have marked the difficulty as medium, simply because it is quite hard on the hands when making the base. Easier when you get to the sides because the work is in front of you, vertical. the crochet itself is a doodle :D