This cute DIY basket can be knitted in about an hour even if you’re a slow knitter. Since this project uses jumbo yarn (size 7), it does not require a lot of stitches.
There are no complicated stitches in this project either if you can knit stitch and single crochet, you’ll be able to create this knitted basket.
I am always amazed at how fast jumbo and chunky yarns knit up. It’s perfect for someone as impatient as I am, plus I like the look of the big knit projects.
The basket is 10 inches across and 6 inches high and only uses a single skein of jumbo yarn (with a bit left over). I am a very loose knitter. If you are a tight knitter, your baskets may only be 8 inches wide. The gauge of knitting will play a role in how wide your baskets will be when you finish. I knitted 3 of these baskets. One was 10, one was 9 3/4 and one was 9. A friend of mine knitted hers and she ended up with an 8.25-inch wide basket. Your mileage here will vary depending on how tightly you knit.
This is a perfect project for someone who knows how to knit and single crochet but wants to create something a bit more exciting than a scarf.
A quick note about knitting in the round
When you knit in the round, your knit pattern becomes a stockinette stitch. It’s the magic of knitting in the round.
stockinette stitch is what I consider a true knit look. It’s basic, and easy, but creates a very pretty punctuated pattern with jumbo yarn.
Stockinette stitch does have a downside. It creates a top that will want to naturally curl in on itself. This is why this knit basket has a simple crochet top in cotton cording. The cording is stiff and opens the basket up, stopping that curl from happening altogether.
Materials and Tools to knit One DIY Basket
I completely winged this project because I could not find simple instructions on how to create a flat bottom. Eventually, I figured it out but no lies, it took a few tries.
I’ve knitted up this pattern several times now, and I know there are no issues or snags. It’s super easy, doesn’t require a lot of fussing, and uses only the simplest of stitches.
~This post may contain affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. I only ever recommend what tools or materials I use for my projects. I also test all my projects before publishing and if something doesn’t work, I don’t share it! ~
Materials
One skein Red Heart Grande Yarn, Oatmeal
Macrame Cord Natural Cotton 3mm
I have a full blog post dedicated to jumbo yarns. It’s a good reference if you don’t like the recommended yarn for this project. A nice alternative would be Bernat Mega Bulky Yarn 
.
Tools
Circular 24-inch (60cm) Knitting Needles; Size US 19 (15.0mm) 
You can also use 16-inch circular knitting needles, your stitches will be a bit crowded, but it does work and may work better for some of you.
Important: I’ve had a few comments about 24 inch needles being too long.
The recommended yarn has a gauge of 4 inches per 6 stitches – with 32 stitches this would create a circumference of 21.5. This can be knitted on 24-inch circular needles.
I knit loose and my gauge for this yarn was 4.5 inches (give or take) per 6 stitches making a 24-inch circular needle a really good fit. I had no problem at all joining in the round or knitting up my baskets on 24-inch needles. It actually felt a bit crowded for me until I got to the reduction rounds.
I never considered my knitting gauge when I took the measurements of the baskets.
BUT…If your knitting gauge usually runs lower because you are a tighter knitter you may actually find the 24-inch needles too long.
Your knitting gauge will also determine the width of these baskets. I had folks report anything from 8 inches to 11 inches – knitting gauge apparently is wildly variant.
If you use any other yarn with any other gauge, I cannot tell you how these will knit up. Even if you use a different jumbo yarn there is no guarantee because gauge on those jumbo yarns varies as wildly as well.
Step 1
Cast on 32 stitches on your size 19 knitting needles.
Step 2
Knit 13 rows in the round. I use a simple safety pin to mark the start of my round and move it to the next round each time.
Step 3
At row 14 stitch two together for the full round. You will have 16 stitches remaining on your needles.
Step 4
At row 15 stitch two together for the rest of the round. It gets a bit tight here; your needles will take a bit of pushing and pulling because your stitches are now very close together. This will leave eight stitches on your knitting needles.
Step 5
Gently remove your knitting needles, keeping your last eight stitches loops intact.
Weave your tail through the last eight stitches and give a gentle pull, your bottom should like the photo below.
Step 6.
The top of your DIY basket will be a bit curly; it won’t stand up straight. We rectify this by crocheting a simple trim around the top.
Single crochet into the single top stitch with your 3mm cording and a 7mm crochet hook (as shown in the photo below), go two full rounds and tie off.
Don’t crochet too tightly, leave your crochet stitches loose enough to bridge between your knit stitches.
If you crochet too tightly it will create a top that is too narrow, so watch your stitches.
Finishing up your DIY Basket
This DIY basket is soft and collapsible. You can fold your DIY baskets down and tuck them away, or stand them up somewhere on display. They stand up on their own just fine, but they are not stiff.
If you want a stiffer basket I recommend using Bernat Maker Big Yarn, it’s a T-shirt yarn but knits up stiff and tight and will give these DIY baskets rigid sides.
You can also weave a cord, or ribbon through the top knitted loops to create drawstrings.
I initially made one DIY basket, and I liked it so much I knitted a set for my new office. They are a cute way to sort small office supplies.
Free DIY Basket Pattern you can Knit up in a Flash
Materials
- One skein Red Heart Grande Yarn, Oatmeal
- Macrame Cord Natural Cotton 3mm
Tools
- Circular 24-inch (60cm) Knitting Needles; Size US 19 (15.0mm)
- Crochet Hook, 7mm
Instructions
- Cast on 32 stitches on your size 19 knitting needles.
- Knit 13 rows in the round. I use a simple safety pin to mark the start of my round and move it to the next round each time.
- At row 14 stitch two together for the full round. You will have 16 stitches remaining on your needles.
- At row 15 stitch two together for the rest of the round. It gets a bit tight here; your needles will take a bit of pushing and pulling because your stitches are now very close together. This will leave eight stitches on your knitting needles.
- Gently remove your knitting needles, keeping your last eight stitches loops intact.
- Weave your tail through the last eight stitches and give a gentle pull to close off the bottom.
- Single crochet into the single top stitch with your 3mm cording and a size seven crochet hook, go two full rounds and tie off.
- Weave your ends in and clean up any errant threads.
Notes
Don't crochet the top rim too tightly, leave your crochet stitches loose enough to bridge between your knit stitches.
These are soft sided baskets that are collapsable. If you want your side to stand stiff I recommend using a T-shirt yarn like Bernat Maker Big.
More Big Knit Projects
I love big knit projects and have a few more on the site. If you’re interested you may like:
Big knit blanket with ridiculous giant knitting needles
Chunky knit wreath perfect for fall and Winter (one of my more popular posts)
A jumbo yarn knitted throw pillow you can make in under an hour!
More Simple Crochet Projects
There are a few very easy, single crochet projects on the site as well:
Pretty Cotton Coasters These crochet coasters make a beautiful handmade gift!
Macrame cording wreath A perfect wreath for autumn, or winter.
This simple ornament wrap trick – Pretty crochet wrapped holiday ornaments
We also made a cute set of hanger tabs and product wraps for all your handmade gifts. They and a sweet personal touch to all your handcrafted goods. You can grab that set below by signing up to our mailing list.
Erica says
Hey! I was just reading a few of the comments. Love this pattern! I don’t have the right size circular needles, length. I just use the magic look method, it is so easy. Thanks again for sharing 🙂♥️
Laura Kennedy says
So glad the pattern is working for you, and that’s a great suggestion! Thanks for the comment, Erica. 🙂
Karen McDonald says
Love this! I was thinking of using 3mm leather cord for the crochet part. Do you have any idea how long leather would piece need to be? the macramme cording is 50 yards, I assume we only use a small amount of it.
Laura Kennedy says
Hi, Karen. I absolutely love the idea of the leather cording. You won’t need a lot, I don’t want to guess too little, but if I was running out to grab leather coring I would probably grab 2 yarns just to be on the safe side, although I am sure a yard itself might be enough. Let us know how it turns out!
Jojo says
What am I doing wrong? My 24 needles seem to long I am having a hard time joining I. The round!
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Jojo, I’m not sure why the 24 inches would be too long to connect. Can you verify for me what size the needles are (not the length, but the width of the needles), and what yarn you’re using? I found when I was making my baskets, the 24-inch needles worked perfectly until I got to the end of the basket and started to reduce stitches. The needles were a bit tight toward the end, but starting out there were no issues at all. Let me know about the needle size and yarn and we’ll troubleshoot your baskets.
Jill says
This does not work with regular yarn on size 19 needles. The needles in the pictures are not size 19 either. I tried many times. I have 90 stitches on size 9 circular needles, I suspect it is too large to make this basket, is there anything else I can do with this? I have knitted 19 rows in the round.
Laura Kennedy says
Jill, the needles I used are indeed size 19. I can take more pictures to show the size of the needle clearly stamped on the needles I used if you require it.
And you are right, regular yarn will not work in this project. The project requires jumbo yarn and specifically the Grande yarn I recommend as not all jumbo yarns are the same thickness. This is a very thick, very chunky yarn.
If you used the correct needles and the correct yarn you wouldn’t be able to get 90 stitches cast on, there is simply not enough room on the needles to cast on that many. I am sorry you are having difficulty with this project, but If you are using size 9 needles with regular yarn it’s simply not going to work. If you look back at the photos you can see with a 1/3 of the stitches you cast on your needles my needles are already almost full.
The yarn I recommend knits up to 4 inches per every 6 stitches.
Nicole says
Any knitted options for the top? I love these but can’t crochet AT ALL.
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Nicole, You could simply knit a top, the same way I show how to crochet, you could do a very loose knit stitch around the top with the cording. It would give a similar lacey open look. I haven’t tried it, but I cannot see why it wouldn’t at least work the same way. Take a look at how I spread that crochet stitch because you will want to make sure that the knit stitch doesn’t pull the basket opening too tight. Keep it nice and loose and it technically should work for you.
KJo says
I haven’t tried it yet, but I think if you did a purl round followed by a knit round and another purl round before knitting the following rounds, the top would not curl. It would change the yardage needed though. I may give this a try. Cute basket!
Laura Kennedy says
Yup, that’s the way to cuff and prevent the curl. For this project I wanted something that was a bit different for the top, that had an intricate look, without a lot of effort so that’s why I opted to do the smaller cording with single crochet. Thanks for the comment!
Denise says
thank you so much for this pattern. i just started knitting courses and i’m glad to realize that i can do this simple but yet so cute little basket……thanks again
Laura Kennedy says
You are more than welcome Denise, and I am so glad you like the pattern. It really is a fun and easy little basket to knit up. Let us know how it goes if you make one! Cheers. 🙂
Rene' Woodward says
What type of cast on did you use? There are so many to choose from!
Rene’
P.S. Love this!
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Rene, I used the single cast on knitting method is also called the thumb cast on, and backward loop cast on. I will update the post to reflect that because you’re 100% right there are many different ways to cast on, some a little bulkier than others. Thanks for pointing that out! Cheers.
Bev says
I love these baskets! Can these be made larger? If so, how?
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Bev! Unfortunately making them larger isn’t as easy as just increasing the number of stitches cast on, the base reduction would change based on how many stitches you started with but I can’t tell you that for sure without knitting one up. It took me several attempts with this particular basket to get the bottom just right, so it’s a trial and error unless you find a pattern, or if you’re willing to test it until you get the bottom right. I do have plans for larger baskets in the next few weeks, but I have to wait for my yarn to arrive.
Carrie at Curly Crafty Mom says
You are so talented! I just love the details photos of this basket, it really shows the beauty in the knots. I love the yarn colors you selected, too… neutrals are my jam right now! These would make great gifts.
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Laura Kennedy says
Hey ya, Carrie! You’re such a sweetie. That yarn was a fluke color for me too because I ordered it without seeing. It looks like a very cool grey online but it leans much warmer. I am not sure where they get color names for this stuff because this yarn bares no resemblance what so ever to “Oatmeal”. Thanks for stopping by!
Pam Thompson says
Hi Laura wanted to thank you for sharing the basket pattern with us knitters! I think the look of them is “I want some!!!!!” ? My ? to you is if you double the yarn to get the thickness needed, is it going to change the looks much, make it more difficult to knit, make a sturdy basket? I have Bernat softee chunky yarn and wonder if that was doubled if it would be a good choice of yarn for basket? Thanks Laura!!!
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Pam! Thanks for your kind comment about the baskets. I haven’t knitted with Bernat Soft Chunky so I am unfamiliar with the thickness or how it knits up. I am about to do a “chunky” yarn comparison and I will add that one to my list.
As far as a different look, it will look different, but not too much. I’ve doubled up lots of yarns to bulk them and it often works as intended. It might actually look really good doubled because of the extra texture.
Doubling this yarn should give you a stiffer side – but not knowing the yarn it’s hard to say for sure. I would say since the basket pattern is super fast to knit, I would do a test first, double up your yarn and do a few rows and see if you like how it knits up.
It might get a bit tight toward the end, but I would just keep the stitches a bit loose to compensate. That should do the trick.
Let us know how it goes!
Jennifer Baker says
Oh my goodness! These are so adorable and kudos to you for your mad crocheting skills. It’s something my grandmother used to do and I tried to learn but my fingers fumbled the yarn terribly. Good for you!
Laura Kennedy says
Hi Jennifer! Um, here is a secret, I actually cannot crochet – well not really. I’m a one trick pony as far as crochet goes.. but shhh don’t tell anyone. Thanks for the sweet comment!
Julie Briones says
Well, these are just beautiful, and LOVE the colors! Pinned!
Laura Kennedy says
Thanks, Julie! You’re the best 🙂
Marissa | Squirrels of a Feather says
I am NOT AT ALL confident in my knitting abilities but you make me want to start SO BAD. I do love the way the ribs on this knit pattern looks. I also love chunky yarn. Pinning to several boards, thanks!
Laura Kennedy says
You should Marissa! Knitting is one of those skills you can collect pretty easy and these little baskets are a great starter project because they use the most basic of knit stitches. Plus I know you already have the chunky yarn. 😉