My Second Felted Basket
Free Knitting Pattern

my second felted basket

My husband and I enjoy visiting thrift stores whenever we travel.   He is looking for bargain plant pots and I am searching for bargain wool.  On our last trip I found this beautiful cobalt blue & indigo pure New Zealand wool.  I turned it into a 7 inch felted basket.  The flowers and the leaves are crochet and I am not including it in the pattern.   You can easily google the crochet flower & leaves pattern on the web.

I have done some felting before like My first felted basket I did ages ago.  I thought it was really neat and this is a perfect wool for it.  I hope you give it a try.  Let me know how it turns out.  Let’s get to the pattern, shall we?

Finished measurement: about 7 inches in diameter and 4 inches high.

Gauge: 4 sts per inch over stockinette stitch

Materials Required For Felted Basket

1. 100 gram pure sport weight wool of your choice (mine is pure New Zealand wool 165 m/50g)16 inch # 10 (6mm) US circular knitting needle
   
2. 1 set of double pointed needles with the same size (5 needle dpn works best)
3. Stitch marker
4. Big eye needle
5. Washing machine (see note below for none washing machine felting)
6. A pillowcase or lingerie bag

Direction

With circular knitting needles and double strains of wool, cast on 80 stitches.  If you have only one ball of yarn then use one end from the center and one end from the outer.  Join knitting in a round and place a marker at the beginning of the round.  Then knit the following; 

Rnd 1: Knit.

Rnd 2-3: Purl.

Rnd 4-6: Knit.

Rnd 7-8: Purl.

Rnd 9: Knit.

Continue knitting every round until you are about 4-5 inches in height or less if you want.  Change to double point needle and knit the following;  

Rnd 1: *k8, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd.

Rnd 2: Knit

Rnd 3: *k7, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd

Rnd 4: Knit

Rnd 5: *k6, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd.

Rnd 6: Knit

Rnd 7: *k5, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd.

Rnd 8: Knit

Rnd 9: *k4, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd

Rnd 10: Knit

Rnd 11: *k3, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd.

Rnd 12: Knit

Rnd 13: *k2, k2tog; repeat from * to end of rnd.

Rnd 14: Knit

Rnd 15: *k1, k2tog; repeat from *to end of rnd

Rnd 16: Knit.

Rnd 17: *k2tog; rep from * to end of rnd.

Cut Yarn leaving about a 12 inch long tail.   Tread the tail through the big eye needle and run it through each remaining stitch.  I would run through them twice.  Make sure to weave the end of the yarn several times through random stitches to secure it before cutting it short.

Felting Process

Place the basket in a lingerie bag or a pillowcase with a secure tide of a scrap yarn or a rubber band.  Place a dirty towel that you want to wash in the machine along with the basket.  Set a machine to normal, hot, high agitation wash.  When done, take out the basket and smooth it with your hand.  You can stuff it with a soft kitchen towel if you’d like but I found it not necessary.  The basket seemed to be pretty sturdy on its own.  Just let it sit in a safe place to dry out.  

Note: You can use the leftover wool to make a flower and leaves to decorate the basket like I did or just leave it as it is.  Place the deco pieces in the bag together with the basket in the washing machine.

For those of you who don’t have the washing machine.  Try boiling it in a big pot of water.  You have to stir and agitate it a lot to make the wool shrink.  Then cool it down with cold water and squeeze out excess water then smooth it and let it dry.

I hope you give it a try. Share a picture of your basket if you do so.  I’d love to see it.

Have fun knitting! 

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