decluttering WIN (and crochet FO)

There was a pile of power cords sprawling under the end table in our living room, making that corner of the room look messy. (I was able to notice this only because the rest of that corner had recently been decluttered.)

I wanted to contain the mess by nesting all the cords together in a basket, only I didn't have a rightly-sized basket. I tried a smallish one, and it looked nice for a moment, but as soon as we plugged anything into the cables, they all spilled out of the basket. No good.

I thought about buying a basket, but then I had an idea: I could make one, and not only clean up the mess in the corner, but use up some old acrylic yarn I had no other plans for.

I got three coordinating colors of yarn and crocheted them, holding all three together:

The resulting basket is just the right size:

I like this technique. The fabric it makes is stiff enough to hold the shape of the basket, but you can still bend the basket, which is nice for fitting it into the odd corner. I want to try using this technique again to make a square-bottomed tote - I bet it'd be great for holding toys, or for gathering toys that have been scattered around the house (I'm picturing handles made by leaving two parallel slits near the top of the tote - that should be pretty sturdy).

Crocheting with a triple strand of worsted weight yarn is a little hard on the wrists. But worth it for the results. It's so satisfying to be able to solve a problem by making something.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell