My internal creative compass has been spinning all over the place since the beginning of the year. I was really reluctant to complete my monster storage basket, not sure why. Probably the usual fear of messing it up. My compass stopped pointing anywhere, so I procraftinated by learning a new thing – corner to corner crochet, from this excellent tutorial.
Top tip: when learning a new technique it’s a good idea to use a non-fluffy yarn where you can actually see the stitches. Duh, Zola.
Once I used a suitable practice yarn and got the hang of it, I was addicted. You start with a tiny block instead of a massively long foundation chain. It works up quickly, has an attractive texture, and when you get past the halfway point you accelerate towards the finish.
Then I found that self-striping yarn like my stash of yarn cakes works really well with corner to corner (or c2c) and started making cushion covers. Each cover needs two sides, and I messed up matching the sizes – several times. It’s no good just counting how many little blocks you have on the diagonal, you need to count height and width. But I’ve got one almost done, just needs the zip. I’m fixing the second one and have plans for more.
Corner to corner cushion cover made with Caron Cakes Funfetti. I needed one and half cakes to do this. 
A close up of the texture from the c2c stitch.
Fortunately for me, Aldi currently has tons of yarn cakes (and other yarn including plain Aran and DK and baby blanket/chenille) at bargain prices. Get ’em quick if you want them! I couldn’t resist trying a little sample of the rainbow yarn to see how it worked up.
Aldi yarn haul! 
A close up of the Rainbow Fruit Salad yarn with corner to corner stitch. Thinking it might be nice with grey as a counterpoint.
I have multiple plarn baskets on the go, on hold until my plastic stash accumulates again and I can find the right colours to finish them off.
I finished off another basket which was made in a frenzy with 3 others over the Christmas holidays. I managed to mess up the stitch count on the base rounds, so it turned out way bigger than I needed for present-giving purposes. I finished it off anyway, as it’s still perfectly usable and quite a smart colour combo.
The Midnight basket. 
Tea mug for scale (of course). 
Inside the basket. 
This is where it all went wrong. I’m going to put it down to tiredness, lurgy, and being in a hurry.
I pushed on a bit at a time and got my monster done, and I’m very fond of him. He’s available in the etsy shop.
Even monsters need a good cuppa from time to time. 
Side view. He’s empty in this picture. 
I’ll be sorry to see him go. I’m very fond of him. 
His head comes off to put things inside. 
He holds a lot of yarn! (And other stuff.)
I will definitely be making him some friends.
I’m still flailing around, working out what will sell and how to get my work seen (like every other new etsy shop owner). I’m trying to make multiples of things for the shop at a time so I don’t just have a collection of totally random items. It doesn’t help that last night when I couldn’t sleep, I suddenly figured out a better way of using the scoubidou stash I have kicking around for jewellery, and I’m dying to try it out…
Zola Makes Things 