Thank you to the Lottery!!!

No I haven't won the Lottery but another prize.  Let me explain -

Back last November I received the Stanwick Lakes (SL) Newsletter in my email and they were running a competition.  Apparently the Lottery had asked for something to be given back to those who support it and as Stanwick Lakes must get a grant from them they (SL) wanted anyone buying a Lottery ticket that week to photograph it and send it to them to go in a draw for one of their 'Trading Places' workshops.  Well I did as I was told and I won a place on the course to make a basket.

So on Tuesday I arrived and we were told all about the technical terms for the willow:
- rods are the lengths of willow
- butt is the fat end of the rod
- whips are the thin end of the rod
etc (in other words I have forgotten the other techy names!)

We started with 6 thick rods and after cutting slits in the middle of three of them we could start

and at that moment disaster for me.  One of my main rods broke, but luckily Maggie our teacher gave me her sample piece so the picture above was not my work but the rest is!

Then we started weaving the base

Note that not all the rods had been separated at this point 

As you will see from these photos it was very sunny and hot so we had to spend a great deal of time damping down the willow so it didn't dry out, either with a spray or making sure it was covered with very wet matting.

The pile of bits on the right are all the ends from the rods used in the weaving

The base is complete and it was now lunchtime.

After lunch -

We then pushed 24 rods on either side of our base rods and pulled them up and they were tied with string, a circle was placed on the rods, the string was removed and a heavy stone on the base as we were now weaving from the side.

We started weaving the sides with 24 individual rods and concentrating hard because each rod went "over 2 and under one" and onto the next rod, working right and whoa betide us if we got it wrong because the pattern would be distorted!!

Onto the next pattern "over one under one" and onto the next rod and then the sides started to rise

Finally another round of over two and under one and the basket was looking good.

Now to finish off and the upright rods were woven along the top, the final three being cut and forced down and the basket was finished.

10" (26cm) across x 4" (10cm) in depth 

Nearly all my own work and it hasn't fallen apart yet!!

That was just one day in a very busy February which included looking after my son's puppy for half term, preparing for a 'De-stash Sale', working on the Christmas Challenge which has to be finished by 25 March, having a tree cut down in my garden, Nordic walking when time permitted, fitting in another bike ride to make it 4 since 1 January and thus getting a prize (not known at this time), a family get together + all the usual jobs one has to do.  

I need a lie down in a darkened room!!!!!!