The monster stripy stash basket that I’ve made is constructed of two crochet baskets joined together with a quilted lining between them. This produces a firm basket that will stand up on its own when empty.

You could also try this in a thick cotton yarn such as Drops Paris or Drops Love You 5, or Sugar n Cream or something like hooked Zpagetti. It might be possible to use DK cotton and use it double too.

Materials used

• Hayfields Bonus Chunky, 100% acrylic, in the colours: bubblegum, softmint, neon, sunflower, primrose, bluebell, aran and bright pink. One ball of each and two balls of soft mint made both baskets (inner and outer) and I had plenty left over
• A size 6mm crochet hook (Size J)
• Thin cotton piping cord (1-2mm diameter)
• Remnant of cotton and polyester wadding to make a padded lining

Stitches used

• Chain stitches
• Double crochet (UK terms used throughout)
• Half trebles
• Slip stitches

Base of the basket

This is worked as a circle in half trebles. The base of the inner basket needs to be two rounds smaller than the base of the outer basket. See the separate tutorial with detail on how to make a perfect circle. You will need this to get the number of increases in each round correct.

Then change colour to make the next round. See a separate tutorial on changing colour to  minimise your seam.

Then complete two rounds in each colour – the colour order is totally up to you. In the base of my outer basket I had sunflower, bright pink, bubblegum, neon and softmint.

The base of my inner basket was one round smaller. I started with sunflower and bright pink again but then moved onto softmint and aran.

Once your base circles are done, weave in all the ends neatly to the wrong side. The right side of the outer basked will show on the outside while the right side of the inner basket will show on the inside. Both wrong sides will be hidden away.

Starting on the basket sides

On the next round, use only double crochet stitches and make the first round into the back loops only of the previous round. You no longer add any increases (so do not crochet two stitches into the same stitch at all in this round). Each round following is simply one stitch into each stitch of the round below.

All of the rounds of the basket sides are in double crochet only as this gives the basket greater strength. Always work with the outside of the basket as the RIGHT side. (When the inner basket is finished, it is turned inside out before stitching into place.)

Each colour stripe of the basket consists of two rounds of double crochet.

It is up to you how high you make the basket – you could stop at 8 stripes and then make a lining and stitch the inner and outer baskets together, or have more. I made 16 stripes to make a tall basket. The photo below shows the inner basket with 14 stripes and I had just finished the base of the outer basket. I later added one more stripe to the inner basket before joining the two together.

Joining the inner and outer baskets and adding the lining

At this point the outer basket on the left has 16 stripes and the inner basked has 15 stripes and has been turned inside out.

Making the lining

To make the lining I measured the diameter of the larger basket and worked out the perimeter using more maths… The perimeter of a circle is equal to two times pi times the radius of the circle. Pi is a maths constant that equals 3.14.

So, measure your diameter, half it to get the radius of your base circle. Then multiply that by 3.14 and then double it. This tells you how long you need to make your lining (don’t forget to add a bit for your seam allowance).

I cut a strip of sturdy cotton material (a cheap remnant) so that the length was my circle perimeter plus 3cm. Its width was twice the height of the outer basket.

I folded this over, enclosing a single layer of 4oz polysester wadding cut to size. Once folded I turned in the hems to neaten and sewed the bottom seam. I then freestyled quilted all over to keep the wadding in place. This wasn’t neat because it didn’t have to be – all the lining will be completely hidden.

I then sewed the two edges, overlapped by 1.5 cm, again no need to neaten the edges.

Putting the basket together

Pop the lining into the outer basket, making sure the right side of the basket is on the outside.

Then pop in the inner basket, making sure the right side is on the inside.

Hopefully, the tops of the two baskets will be at a similar level and you can pull them just above the lining. Taking the same colour yarn as your last stripe on both baskets, use double crochet stitches through both loops of both stitches on the two baskets to join together. You might have to do a bit of fudging because the inside basket is slightly smaller, but the two baskets should fit together very well.

You then have a storage basket and you can stop there if you like. I decided to add some handles.

Making the basket handles

Once the two baskets are joined, complete another round of dc stitches. You can see how neat the join is in the photo below.

Then you need to mark the position of the handles. I used tail ends of yarn as stitch markers to position the handles in the middle of the basket and made the handles span 12 dc stitches.

In the next round work dc stitches until you get to the stitch marker. Then make 14 chain stitches (or 16 if you want a bigger, looser handle).

Then continue for another round, making a dc stitch into each of the chain stitches of the handle too.

After doing one more round of dc stitches I decided to strengthen the handles by crocheting a round of dc stitches enclosing a length of cotton piping 1-2mm thick.

I then added a final round of dc stitches in softmint. This did show through so I added as the final round some dc stitching in the bright pink, working into the stitches two rows below. This gives the monster basket its spiky hairdo!

Enjoy!

Enter the Spring Flower Blanket Charity Draw!

If you’ve found this tutorial useful please think about making a donation to the Spring Flower Blanket Charity Draw. All money raised goes to Marie Curie Cancer Care and if you donate before midnight on April 23 2015, you get an entry into the draw to win this blanket for every £2 you donate. Open worldwide, blanket posted to winner free.

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Thank you xxx