Since my first two little baskets, I have crocheted so many baskets with fabric yarn, and un-crocheted even more!  Wait, that doesn’t make sense… But that’s how it seems.  Fabric yarn is so quick and easy to unravel, that whenever I don’t like the outcome I just pull and undo it, and remake it a little better… Or maybe change the type and color of the trim.
But if I get past the immediate urge to unravel the imperfect, or if by chance it comes out perfect, I place the finished basket somewhere ‘just for now’, and something strange begins to happen… The fabric yarn I just finished crocheting sends off little rootlets into the table or the shelf… The roots grow into the surface, deepening their hold (they do this especially at night), and when I want to move the basket, I discover it’s too late, it’s impossible to detach it from where it has been standing.
There is only one way to get around this (that I know of), and that is, when you crochet the basket for someone special. There will be a lot of unraveling and redoing, but when it’s finished, the roots will wait to grow until they reach that person’s house.
So now, it’s just a matter of finding the right flowers to go with the basket.
I have had two opportunities to make such a basket for two special someones, and it was such a nice feeling to see them growing roots in their new home. Well, I didn’t try to lift them from their place but I assume it’s the same on any surface.
This picture was taken by my niece N. (we were running a little low on daylight, but I think the lighting gives it atmosphere…).

These two baskets (they are two different ones, although they look the same…) were made by single-crocheting blue fabric yarn in a spiral for the base, then continuing straight on for the sides. Once you have a low-rimmed blue bowl, you finish it off, and start to crochet the flower rows. My green and red strands were slightly thinner than the blue, so I think I may have used a slightly smaller hook. This serves well for the rounding in of the basket. You start with the stems in green: Two half double-crochets in a stitch, then skip one (you need to have an even number of stitches, which you will if you start the base with an even number of single crochets into the magic circle). For the next row, you crochet a red half double crochet into a pair of green hdc’s, right between the stems – then chain stitch, and so on all around. For the trim, you use a lacy strand of fabric yarn. You start by slip-stitching the strand to the space between two red hdc’s, then chain-stitching (I think 4 ch st), and slip-stitching again in the next space, and so on all around.

If you start with a tail to the thread and end with one, you can pull those tails through to the outside of the basket to make a bow, or just tie in a loose knot and let the strands hang down so their laciness shows.

If you put a flowerpot in the basket, be sure to use a base for it, and if you want cut flowers or a little flower arrangement, make sure it’s in a bowl!