How I Crocheted a Basket for the Bouquet Blanket
Someone on my TikTok commented, “how do you store your Bouquet Blanket?”, which led to my crochet basket journey. I wanted something neutral, timeless, and elegant that I could repurpose for more than just the bouquet blanket, which honestly speaking, lives more on the couch to be readily used than wrapped up in the basket I made for it.
I considered T-shirt yarn for a more modern look. Unfortunately, that wasn’t easily available in my local yarn stores and honestly, I try to buy yarn from Joann’s as much as I can to get discounts, so I instead opted for Stephanie Lau’s Waistcoat Basket pattern, which uses Lion Brand Wool ease Thick & Quick. See her free pattern on her All About Ami blog here (Ad-free version available via Etsy).
The Thought Process + Journey
I rolled up the blanket the way I demonstrate in this reel and took measurements of the diameter, height, and circumference.
All About Ami’s finished dimensions are a lot smaller than the ones I needed for the blanket, so I planned to increase the base of the circle (round 1-5) to 14 inches in diameter and the body of the basket to 14 inches. I purchased two colorways, Oatmeal (6 balls) and Grey Marble (3 balls), thinking I would later make All About Ami’s original basket in grey marble and make the blanket basket in oatmeal.
All About Ami’s method uses weight 6 yarn held double, which she uses a 8mm hook for. I tend to crochet with a tight gauge in general, so this pattern was very taxing on my hands and fingers, especially when I got to the waistcoat stitch rows. I had started with the blanket basket, but I took a break after finishing the base and one row of the body and instead opted to do the Grey Marble basket in her dimensions first (approximately). I experimented with using a 9mm hook and crocheting a little more loosely so that I wasn’t forcing the stitches), which was a much better experience for me. Using a 9mm hook changed my gauge significantly, but I didn’t want to redo the base for the Oatmeal basket, so I left it as such and used a 9mm hook for the rest of the sides of the Oatmeal basket.
When I got further up the sides of the body of the basket, I realized that the sides of the basket weren’t going to stand straight up, so I did some research and added a slst row where AllAboutAmi indicates to SC in 3rd loops, then followed up that row with SCs that went through the back loops of the circle AND the 3rd loops. This is modified from a method in Sweet Everly B’s blog here.
Did this perfectly make the sides of my basket go up straight? Nope! This is why I ended up refrogging the basket to a 13 inch base instead of a 14 inch base, to account for the fact that the basket’s sides were going to expand outward (later compensated by the reverse crab stitch).
I tested how the blanket would fit into the basket as I went, and decided to stop earlier than 14 inches tall as well. This resulted in a basket 13 inches in diameter, 8.5 inches in height, and 44 inches in circumference (if the diameter/circumference calculation doesn’t make sense to you, that is probably because I increased hook sizes between the base and the sides from 8mm to 9mm and the basket did not go up straight right away). In retrospect, it seemed like the circumference of the blanket was the most useful metric out of the three measurements I took, so if I were to repeat this process, I would just use the circumference and calculate the necessary diameter from that.
Summary of Modifications
My modifications to AllAboutAmi’s Waistcoat Basket pattern (out of respect for her copyright, I am not reposting the pattern). Note that if your blanket is larger/smaller than mine when rolled, you will need to adjust accordingly.
TIP: crochet the CSC tightly but NOT too tightly that you have to force your hook in
Gauge: Base - 4 rows, 6.5”; Sides - 4 rows, 1.75”; Final Dimensions: 13” base, 9” tall, 44 inch circumference
Using 8mm hook, Base: 8 rows (R6-8 are continued from her pattern)
R6: Ch 2. *Hdc 4, Hdc Inc*, rep 10 times. Sl st to first hdc (60 sts).
R7: Ch 2. *Hdc 5, Hdc Inc*, rep 10 times. Sl st to first hdc (70 sts).
R8: Ch 2. *Hdc 6, Hdc Inc*, rep 10 times. Sl st to first hdc (80 sts).
After the base, I added a slst row where AllAboutAmi indicates to SC in 3rd loops, then followed up that row with SCs that went through the back loops of the circle AND the 3rd loops.
Using 9mm hook, Sides: 21 rows (before RSC)
P.S. if you make your own basket using these modifications, I would LOVE to see it, so please tag me @knotfastfashion on Instagram if you post it (and don’t forget to credit allaboutami.com for the original pattern).
