I'm a Basket Case....

That was me yesterday. I coiled. Then I coiled some more. I thought that I should give you a few tips on mini coiling this morning.

If you went to the sites that I had in the blog yesterday you should have the general idea of how to coil a basket. The only difference between doing it large and doing it small is the materials.

I use a lot of Needle Necessities over dyed floss and some Weeks Dyeworks. Both are carried by a lot of needlework shops and can also be ordered on line.

For the core material I use #32 cloth covered wire. It's the kind that comes on a spool. I leave it attached to the spool. That gives me something to hold onto while I am working and when I stop in the middle I can hook it into the end of the spool so that it won't get tangled or lost.

Here you see the different steps of doing a basket. On the left you see that I have started coiling and have bent the first loop back on itself. I usually use a 4 wrap and then either an overhand stitch or a figure 8. On the overhand stitch you just go around the outside of the previous row. With the figure 8, you take the thread between the row that you are working on and the previous row. Both of the baskets in this photo are done in figure 8. It gives a greater separation between the rows.

Basically you just keep going round and round, wrapping 3 or 4 times and then doing a stitch around the previous row to fasten it. When you want to start building up the sides of the basket you just guide the wire to the place that you want it to go as you work.

Here's what I finished yesterday. I did the one on the far left all the way. The other three just needed finishing up and decorating with feathers.

That's another story. I will tell you about the tiny feathers later. I have to go now.

We are on our way to see the new James Bond movie. See you tomorrow.