A RAFFIA BASKET

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 11 September 1937, Page 13

A RAFFIA BASKET

FOR GIRLS WHO CROCHET If you are fond of crochet, you can make a jolly shopping or picnic basket from ordinary gardening rafliia, ornamented with embroideries in coloured raffia or thick wool. Besides two or three hanks of cream raffia, and one each of red and green—or skeins of rug-wool in these shades —you will need two circles of red or green case-

ment cloth 14 inches across, and a strip of the same cloth 25 inches long and two and a half inches wide.

Using a medium-sized crochet hook, start with 3 chain and join into a ring with a slip-stitch. Work 8 trebles into this ring for the first round, then work 2 trebles into every stitch. Work the next round with 2 trebles in every other stitch, putting 1 treble between and continue thus, round and round, increasing here and there as you go to keep the circle flat. You will have to keep joining on fresh raffia and try to use pieces of more cr less the same thickness. You need not tie the two ends together when joining: just hold the last 1A inches of the old strand against the first 1A inches of the new strand, and work them in together. Go on until the circle measures 13A inches across, then fasten off, and run the end in neatly. Work a second circle, for

the other side of the bag, in the same way.

Next make a chain 2 inches long, turn with 3 chain, and work -in treble. Always turning with 3 chain, continue in treble for 24 inches and fasten off. Work a simple flowor-and-leaf design with the coloured raffia or wools in the middle of one circle. You won’t need a transfer, because you can follow the pattern from the sketch and the diagram—the leaves are green daisyloops. the flowers are done in red stroke-stitches, and the stalks are green stem-stitches. Line the back of the embroidered circle with a circle of casement cloth, folding in the raw edges all round and slip-stitching neatly. Do the same with the plain circle, and line the crochet strip with the long strip of casement cloth in a similar manner. Join the strip to one circle with big over-sewing-stitches in red raffia, then join the other edge of the strip to the other circle. The gusset will make the bag much more capacious. Finally, plait two cords from natural raffia, using two or three strands for each section of the plait, and making each cord 18 inches long. Sew one firmly to each side of the bag for handles. —Wendy’s Dressmaker.