How to begin your coiled basket

STEP 1. Cut a workable piece of yarn and lay the end of the yarn at the end of your coiling rope, side by side.

STEP 2. Then, begin wrapping the yarn around the rope. You’re wrapping toward the end of the rope, as shown here. And you’re also wrapping over the cut end of the yarn.

**You want the yarn to be snug around the rope, and very close together, so it covers the rope completely.

STEP 3. You’ll want to wrap enough rope so that you can bend it like this, and have the wrapped part cover the entire bend.

STEP 4. Continue wrapping over the end of the rope, covering up the cut end, and about 1/2″ along the leading end of the rope.

STEP 5. Thread the other end of the yarn onto your tapestry needle. (Note: this photo shows the same wrapped end you saw in the previous photo, just pointing the opposite direction.) STEP 6. Now, take that wrapped end and carefully begin to coil it. Hold it in this coil while you grab the needle end of the yarn.

STEP 7. Now you need to anchor this little coil now. You do this by passing your needle through the coil above, as shown.

STEP 8. Pull the yarn all the way through. This makes a little stitch, which anchors that coil in place.

STEP 9. Then, you begin the repetitive part: wrap the yarn 3-4 times around the rope, and then take another stitch in the coil above to anchor. Wrap 3-4 more times, and then take another stitch.

STEP 10. As you coil your way along, you’ll keep increasing the number of wraps you make in between those anchoring stitches. Start with 3-4 wraps for the first couple of coils. Then go to 5-6 for the next few coils. Then I went to 6-7. This is a good place to settle in: 6-7 wraps, then an anchor stitch. You don’t want to add more wraps than this between stitches, because then your basket won’t hold together well.

Ending one yarn color and beginning a new

STEP 1. Make one last anchor stitch, as shown here . . . STEP 2. . . And then you pass the needle under several stitches on the coil. Then, cut the end off.

STEP 3. To begin a new strand (or a new color, as shown here), lay the end of the new strand along the rope, as shown here. Thread the other end of the strand onto a needle.

STEP 4. Begin wrapping with the new strand, making sure you start right up against the old strand. You’re also wrapping over the end of the new strand.

STEP 5. . . And then proceed as normal.

Building walls

STEP 1. As you coil, you’ll begin positioning the new coil above the old one, instead of next to it. STEP 2. You can adjust the shape with your fingers as you coil, too. So this image shows the beginning of the walls. From here, you just keep coiling and shaping.

LAST STEP. When you’re ready to end your basket, you’d cut the end of the rope, tape it, and cut it on the diagonal. Then you can wrap and stitch this end down to the last coil of your basket.