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This pliable 10-inch-tall knitting basket was made from a snowy Aran sweater. Its sides came from the body of the sweater; its base was cut from the sleeves.

Knitting Basket How-To
1. Prepare the sweater: Cut off the sleeves of a felted sweater with scissors. Cut sleeves at seams to open them up. Cut the sweater body at shoulder seams to open up the neck. With a sweater comb, remove any pills from sweater.

2. Sew the shoulder ends of the two sleeves together with a zigzag stitch; do not overlap the pieces. (We used red for visibility, but thread should match sweater.) Sew armholes on sweater body closed, so you are left with a tube.

3. Measure the circumference of the sweater's body at the waistband. (Measure from side seam to side seam and double the number.) Use the dimension to create an oval paper template. Center the template on the stitched sleeves; cut out. Pin the waistband end of the tube to the base. Machine-stitch with a 1/2-inch seam allowance. Fold the top edge over into the basket, and secure it to the base with a whipstitch. Steam-iron the finished basket to refine its shape.

First Published: November 2006