Weaving a Basket - The Entire Process!

Here are some pictures of me weaving this cute little doorknob basket. This was a simple basket to weave, but it was the first one I wove on my own. The most rewarding part about weaving this basket is that my husband actually asked if he could have it to hang on his office door to store his wallet, keys, and cell phone. ***awww****

Soak your reed. Never attempt to weave with dry reed. (That one of the weaving commandments!)

Lay out and measure your base according to your pattern. You'll see little pencil marks on some of the stakes. This designates the center of the stake.

My base is woven and I have added a "holder row". Ok, that's not the right term, but it's the row that holds the base in place.

I am now "upsetting" the stakes. (No. I am not saying mean things to my reed!) I am bending the stakes up and holdng then in place with clothespins. Lots and lots of clothespins are used when weaving!

I am now weaving independent rows around my basket. Note that there are still several clothespins helping me along.

Ahhh... It always makes me smile to get to the point where my basket starts taking shape and actually looks like a basket!

Here's where I formed the handle out of my two longer stakes. It looks unfinished here, but I covered it with skinny flat oval before I lashed on the rim.

Here's my basket after the "cut and tuck". Cut inside stakes and fold and tuck outside stakes under rows on the inside of the basket.

The rim is now lashed on. Looks good, right? Are we done? Nope. Gotta make this little guy pretty and strong.

I inserted small pieces of reed in an "X" pattern to reinforce the bottom of the basket.

Then I added pretty green curls to finish off my basket. Simple and sweet. A great beginner weaving project :-)

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Hugs and blessngs~

~~~Anne