This felted yarn basket features an excellent choice for giant yarn and the techniques that can be used to create bowls, baskets, hampers, rugs, poofs, and more.

You can also download a completely free crochet basket step by step guide here!

To say I am a fan of giant yarn is an understatement to be sure. I love the scale, the texture, the speed in which you can complete a project, the heft, the visual drama; I love all of it. I made a gorgeous, super soft piece in this post here with the amazing Knit 1 Share 1 yarn by Little Dandelion from Australia.

Beautiful as it may be, it was too soft to waste on a textile that wouldn’t be next to my skin and shipping from Australia is expensive and there’s no way around it. I have been looking for something made in the USA that would be suitable to make a basket and I struck giant yarn gold with Love Fest Fibers.

Aptly named, Love Fest Fibers is exactly that. They are a company you can feel good about supporting, the are here on the west coast, and they have terrific customer service. Their Instagram account is totally inspiring and you should check it out here. They also have a felted giant yarn that is really, really tough and it is also aptly named: Tough Love. This yarn comes in many colors, both neutral and rainbow, is not quite as big around as a quarter but close, is felted so it won’t pill, disolve, fall apart, or wear out, and is super easy to work with.

After making 2 cream yarn items this year, I went with their hot pink, “Cherry Blossom”, and I am so glad I did.

One large, 50 yard ball is an affordable price considering it’s weight and quality and is enough to make a basket that could hold, but not entirely envelope, a basketball. It works up so quickly I had the base of the basket done in the pickup while driving and I had to take it out because I remembered I needed to take photos of the process so you all could see it.

You need knitting needles size 50 or a crochet hook size U, but I used my fingers and made my basket in about 1 hour and 45 minutes. It really was so satisfying to start my kid’s naptime with a ball of yarn and end it with a super cute basket to hold my cloth diapers. Honestly, my forearms were tired by the end but had I slowed down a bit and taken a break I’m sure that could have been avoided.

How to Crochet in 15 Minutes

Read this blog post (complete with free video tutorial!) to learn the stitches I reference below!

How to make the Felted Yarn Basket

The process is similar to crocheting a beanie in that you chain 3 or 4 (depending on if you use your fingers or a hook, and how big your loops are if you use your fingers) and slip stitch to connect them into a circle. Then, crochet 2 single crochets in each loop, all the way around, creating a flat, round base. I went around 3 times and then started to create the sides of the basket.

When your base is wide enough, start to make only 1 single crochet in each stitch. The sides will begin to form almost immediately and because you are working with such big yarn, you will be able to see right away that you are indeed doing it right.

Continue to crochet 1 single crochet in each stitch, all the way around.

I decided I wanted handles on my basket and had to guess about how much yarn would remain in order for me to run out of yarn just as my handles were completed.

I went around the circle 4 times and skipped one stitch. I chained one (just one!) and then made a single crochet in the next stitch. I tried making the handles by skipping 2 stitches and chaining 2, and I didn’t like it as well. In the photo I think you can see well that by skipping just one stitch, your hand can slide right in the space. That also means that each stitch is about 3 inches long.

I want to walk you through every single stitch in my video workshop, the Unhooked Quick Crochet Basket Workshop.

In the Unhooked Quick Crochet Basket Workshop, you’ll get to watch me finger crochet this exact basket STEP BY STEP. You’ll have forever access to the video and the Plain-English printable PDF instructions. You’ll be able to make this basket again and again! You won’t believe the holiday-perfect price of the workshop – head over to grab it now! 

Love Fest Fibers has a TON of colors to choose from like these brights

or these neutrals

and this season they have these gorgeous variegated stripes! 

but back to the cherry blossom pink felted yarn basket I made!

I single crocheted around to the other side of the felted yarn basket, made my second handle (which is just skipping a stitch and chaining once).

In this casual felted yarn basket “pattern”, I ended the second handle and slip stitched until I had about 8 inches of yarn left and I finished by weaving the tail backwards into the slip stitches. This created a gradual conclusion or decrease to the row, rather than an abrupt stop.

I think this felted yarn basket looks darling, if I say so myself 🙂
With 3 balls, I could make a rectangle base and sides to make a crocheted toy box, which would be so cute. I also made the cutest gift baskets in this post here. On the Love Fest Fibers site, they share lots of beautiful inspiration which you should check out to get your wheels turning to plan out what you  might make.

Get the step by step PDF guide to help you create this exact basket with ease! It is completely free, easy to understand, and clear…even if you’ve never crocheted before. 

Happy Hooking, Wildflowers!