Knitting Basket

For years I was frustrated that knitting bags designed for the purpose were too small (I knit an awful lot!) and generally fell over at inconvenient moments into the bargain. Then I found the perfect (for me) solution! This is a shopping basket I bought some years ago from Lakeland. Being intended as a shopping bag it had a plastic waterproof lining which I stripped out.

Instead I made a lining for it from a remnant of green shot silk. The lining has a drawstring top.

And here are the contents! I keep my pattern of the moment in a clear plastic file with any spare needles I will need. The spare yarn goes in a clear plastic bag at the bottom of the basket and each project, I'm always making several things at once, goes in a separate plastic bag.

Then there is the spare pair of reading glasses, so I don't have to search for them at crucial moments and the Susan Bates peg board row counter, which I couldn't live without.

The notions and tools fit into one of those old fashioned purses I remember from my childhood, a purse within a purse. This holds a pair of scissors, a clear plastic pack of stitch markers, safety pins and one of the little leather thimbles I make for myself. Then there is a piece of heavy duty interfacing with needles and pins. To the left of the purse you can see my latest tatting project and its bag. I photocopy the pattern I am working at the moment to save lugging the book around. Then there is another set of needles and pins, a fine crochet hook and a pair of scissors.