Little Bowls

 

Having made several Little Boxes since autumn, I felt it was time to move along to a slightly different take on the subject. Still crochet, still the same stitch but a different shape and a different 'yarn'.

Down-sizing is looming on our horizon and, in order not be left with trying to fit the proverbial quart into a pint pot, de-cluttering seems to feature in our day to day activities. One large sack I found stashed away out of sight held all the clothes that had been shed from our wardrobes but for one reason or another we were sure that no charity would accept with any degree of sincerity. Amongst these items were several shirts. Lightweight fabrics and worn even thinner, they clearly would not make serviceable cleaning rags but as I prepared to stuff them back into the bag, I was reminded of some fabric bowls I had seen once in a magazine. Earlier de-cluttering meant that the magazine was long gone - well, probably - so I turned to the Internet for ideas. A little browsing later and I was set to start. 

I chose three blue shirts and cut the backs into bias cut strips about 4cms wide. The idea of sewing these strips together to make a continuous thread to work with seemed tedious so I was grateful to find that I could make slits near the ends of each piece and loop them together to make a continuous  kind of chain. 

To make the bowl/basket, I followed one pattern fairly closely but wasn't all that pleased with the end result. I could see the potential of the material and I was sure the largest hook I could find would be adequate but the shape was, well, more of a miss-shape. So I unravelled it and started over, this time taking directions from the work growing in my hands. Much better. At least the rim looked round. Sort of.

 The inside looked much smoother than the outside so I tried turning it inside out. The sides were straighter and more upright. Working, unravelling and reworking had fuzzed up the edges of the strips. Maybe I am  influenced by the seasonal activities of the birds in the garden at the moment but I decided that this time I preferred the cup shape and rougher surface of the way it was when I completed it. I wanted to leave some of the little triangles at the joins so I trimmed only the larger ones. I liked the fuzzy little nest I had made.

I liked it enough to start work on another one straight away, this time recording each step and making notes about what worked and how to do it. Enough for a tutorial post? Let's see.