Weekend craft project: T-shirt yarn crochet basket

Recently, I’ve taken up crochet again. The last time I picked up a crochet hook I was probably still at school; I remember my sister was into knitting at the time and she made some scarves and stuff, but me? I got bored and basically had no discipline to finish anything!

Well, 20 years later(!) I’m glad to say that I have a tiny bit more focus… I’ve had fun making a few cute amigurumi, which are small knitted or crocheted stuffed toys but I wanted to make something ‘useful’ – like something for the house, or a purse. I joined a few crochet communities on Facebook but hadn’t really found anything to my style. There are lots of people making blankets with granny squares or really colourful projects, which is great if you like that style, but it’s not for me. I really like the whole Scandi or Japanese simple design aesthetic (even though I am a total maximalist… more on this another time) and I happened to find this great book called “Modern Crochet” by Molla Mills.

I love the style in this book – clean lines, block colours, graphic shapes. The writer, Molla Mills is a Finnish crochet designer and shows you how to make home accessories like baskets and rugs, as well as accessories such as bags and collar necklaces.

I decided to try the small crochet basket. I bought some denim style T-shirt yarn from Fred Aldous (a huge craft store in Manchester) and used a 9mm crochet hook as recommended by the book. The instructions are pretty easy to follow; the start of the book talks you through the basic stitches, but if you can do the basic double crochet stitch (US single crochet) then you will have absolutely no problem with this. Here are some pics of my progress:

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And here is the finished article! And bonus – it sits perfectly in the wooden dish that came with my Løv Organic teapot.

I think it came out pretty well for my first try, and only took a few hours! I think, next time, I will try two colours and also make my own T-shirt yarn. There are loads of tutorials on how to make your own T-shirt yarn from old T-shirts, click here for a good one!

If you want to try for yourself, there are free patterns out there (click here for one on DaWanda). The book has a lot of other great projects in it so if you are looking for some more advanced graphic patterns, like zig-zags or triangles, then I recommend that you try it!

Happy crafting!

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Hook: 9mm crochet hook by Prym

Yarn: Jersey Be Good T-shirt yarn in Blue Denim by Wool and the Gang