a tale of two baskets / by Katherine Hajer

Two baskets, both alike in fibre content
In my fair-to-middling apartment, where we lay our scene
From ancient bedclothes break to new crocheting,
Where smaller stash makes smaller households more clean. 

Okay, enough of that! Really, from the blog title I chose, I ought to be mangling Dickens instead.

The two baskets have been in the to-do queue for a while. They're both made from this free pattern, which works up very quickly with a 10mm hook. The purple basket is made of four strands of Bernat Cotton Tots held together, while the yellow is an old bedsheet set torn into "yarn".

I find it interesting that both baskets are made of mostly cotton with some synthetic, yet the structure of the materials gives them such different traits. The purple yarn sheds horribly, and the basket started pilling as soon as I finished it. I'm not surprised Bernat discontinued the yarn.

The bedsheets came from IKEA, and lasted nearly fifteen years. They've definitely earned their basket afterlife. Like anything made from "rag" yarn, the basket has plenty of stray threads. I pulled quite a few out once I finished it, but most of them got crocheted in.

As for their purpose, both baskets, having been constructed 100% from stash, shall be used... to store stash. Even modest, upcycled baskets are far more stylish than the plastic shopping bags I'm using for the stash that won't fit in cubbyholes.

The end game is to empty out the stash storage, period, and then repurpose some of the storage. Onwards.