Boxes and Bowls

This week’s topic for the Oxford branch of the Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting tomorrow is knitted and crocheted boxes and baskets.  

I decided to try to make a bowl using Noro Kureyon and single crochet.  My first attempt was a small bowl starting with a ring and working outwards using some rough crochet.  I intended to felt the finished bowl to hide the imperfections and this I duly did.  It is not too bad.  

I then had another go - again with single crochet and Kureyon but I have not felted it.  I also made a much bigger ring to start with – about 8sts and tried to keep the crochet flat for longer to make the bowl larger.  

I think the bowl shows off the colour change of the yarn and the single crochet is so stiff – it makes quite a good soft bowl.  The normal disadvantage of crochet – its stiffness and lack of drape is an advantage in this case.

I then found a pattern for a box made with string in the book Simple Knits for Easy Living by Erika Knight.  You are supposed to use string and starch but I have used green garden twine.  It was only about £1 and the whole roll makes one small box with twine leftover.  It is quite stiff but I could still starch it or paint it with glue if I wanted it to be stiffer.

I have now started knitting a small box using raffia – I will carry on with that tomorrow but now I had better get back to knitting the cardigan that I mentioned last week.