With Spring upon us it's time to think about gardening and decorating with flowers in hanging baskets. Most metal hanging baskets come with cocoa fiber linings that quickly wear out after a season or two. Instead you can make this 100% wool felted liner that will last for several seasons and can even be washed and re-used of necessary.

Supplies

100% wool (feltable) yarn - 8 oz.

Yarn needle

Crochet hook (K)

Scissors

Metal hanging basket frame

Scrap yarn (polyester/acrylic)

Step 1: Crocheting

Using your favorite or free pattern and a large crochet hook (K), crochet a 24" square granny style out of 100% feltable pure wool yarn in knitting worsted weight. Finish off your square by crocheting all around the square in a backwards fashion and tie strands together as you make your square. For this step you can use a contrasting color of scrap wool yarn.

Step 2: Felting

Set your washer to hot temperature and on a short cycle. Add the granny square and a few towels to the washer so that the machine can do the felting for you. You may have to repeat this a couple of times until the granny square shrinks to about 20" side to side. Use a yarn needle to weave polyester/acrylic yarn diagonally through the holes in the granny square. You can leave extra yarn at the ends of each side that can then be used to tie the liner to the metal hanging basket.

Step 3: Weaving

Use a yarn needle to weave polyester/acrylic yarn diagonally through the holes in the granny square. You can leave extra yarn at the ends of each side that can then be used to tie the liner to the metal hanging basket.

Step 4: Finishing

Place the liner into the hanging basket and use the loose yarn ends to tie it to the basket or use polyester/acrylic yarn to sew the liner into the basket. You can also add some plastic wrap to the bottom of the liner before you add soil and flowers to reduce the chance of soil leaking out.