Bear Basket Free Crochet Pattern For Beginners

This super sweet bear basket is the perfect place to stash your WIPs (works in progress) and extra yarn! This stash basket is a good size for sitting on a shelf or a table as an organizer, and can also hold your collection of finished objects or other notions.

This bear basket — a super functional storage solution in a cute animal — is my newest free crochet pattern!

Read on to learn more about my design process and inspiration, or scroll to the end to get the free pattern. If you’re in a hurry and need to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here.

The easiest basket ever!

Crochet baskets might seem a little intimidating at first, but they are some of the easiest and fastest crochet projects to make, not to mention completely practical.

Baskets are simply made by creating a circle and then working continuous rounds around it. Using extremely thick yarn helps the basket stand up more stiffly to create edges.

This basket can be whipped up in just an hour or two, so they make amazing house warming or baby shower gifts. Best of all, they look polished and completely adorable, so it doesn’t look like it was a rush job!

The design and inspiration

Basket designs abound in the crochet world and I’ve always wanted to make one of my own! Of course, I had to put my own cute spin on it by adapting a classic round basket shape into a little teddy bear shape.

The basket is made by holding two strands of super bulky yarn together, so that the basket works up extremely quickly. You do not have to use my method unless you want to achieve my dimensions, but it’s perfectly okay to hold together two strands of worsted, just one strand of bulky, or even sport weight yarn for a tiny basket. As a fun experiment, you can make one basket from different weights of yarn and stack them all together!

The top edging of the basket was inspired by my heart cactus pattern, with the crab stitch edging that adds an extra touch of sophistication to your basket.

I decided on a classic teddy bear face for my basket, but you can adapt the basket to be any animal — or color — you wish.

The Pattern

  • If you want to take this pattern offline, grab the beautifully formatted, ad-free, PDF pattern from Etsy here!
  • Pin this pattern to your Pinterest boards here:

Description

This super sweet bear basket is the perfect place to stash your WIPs (works in progress) and extra yarn! This stash basket is a good size for sitting on a shelf or a table as an organizer, and can also hold your collection of finished objects or other notions.

Yarn

  • Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick (super bulky)
    • (2 skeins) Butterscotch
    • (<1 skein) Fisherman
  • Lion Brand DIYarn (worsted)
    • (<1 skein) Brown

Notions

  • 9mm Clover Amour hook • US size M
  • 6.5mm Clover Amour hook • US size K
  • Scissors
  • Stitch marker
  • Tapestry needle
  • 10.0mm safety eyes

Abbreviations (US)

  • CC: contrast color
  • ch: chain
  • dec: decrease (single crochet two stitches together)
  • inc: increase (two single crochets in one stitch)
  • MC: main color
  • MR: magic circle
  • rnd: round
  • sc: single crochet
  • slst: slip stitch
  • st(s): stitch(es)
  • x sc: single crochet x number of times
  • (x sts): x total stitches at the end of the round or row

Special Stitches

Crab Stitch: Working in the reverse direction, insert your hook into the stitch directly to the right. Yarn over and pull up a loop. Yarn over again and pull through both loops. Continue working into the stitches to the right. For more help, refer to the video tutorial here.

Invisible Finish Off: Video tutorial here.

Technical Notes

  • Crochet in continuous rounds unless otherwise specified
  • To avoid large holes in the crochet fabric, increase tension until the holes cannot be seen, or choose a crochet hook a size down.
  • Stuff the head and the body firmly at the openings so that the neck is stable upon completion.
  • For this pattern, MC is Butterscotch, CC1 is Fisherman, and CC2 is Brown.

Final Size

10″ wide x 6″ tall

BASKET (in MC, with two strands of super bulky yarn held together, using 9.0mm hook. Work in joined rounds)

  • Round 1: 6 sc in MR, slst (6 sts)
  • Round 2: ch, inc x6, slst (12 sts)
  • Round 3: ch, (sc, inc) x6, slst (18 sts)
  • Round 4: ch, (2 sc, inc) x6, slst (24 sts)
  • Round 5: ch, (3 sc, inc) x6, slst (30 sts)
  • Round 6: ch, (4 sc, inc) x6, slst (36 sts)
  • Round 7: ch, (5 sc, inc) x6, slst (42 sts)
  • Round 8: ch, (6 sc, inc) x6, slst (48 sts)
  • Round 9: BLO, sc all around (48 sts)
  • Round 10-18 (9 rnds): sc all around (48 sts)
  • Round 19: crab stitch all around (see Special Stitches) (48 sts)
  • Finish off, and weave in end.

EARS (in MC, with one strand of super bulky yarn, using a 6.5 mm hook)

  • Round 1: 6 sc in MR (6 sts)
  • Round 2: inc x6 (12 sts)
  • Round 3: (sc, inc) x6 (18 sts)
  • Invisible finish off, leaving a tail for sewing. Make another identically. Sew to the top of the basket, 10 stitches apart. Insert the needle through the top round and secure it tightly by making several stitches.

MUZZLE (in CC1, with one strand of yarn, using a 6.5mm hook. Click here for a video tutorial on how to embroider the nose.)

  • Round 1: 6 sc in MR (6 sts)
  • Round 2: inc x6 (12 sts)
  • Round 3: (sc, inc) x6 (18 sts)
  • Round 4: (inc, 2 sc) x6 (24 sts)
  • Invisible finish off, leaving a tail for sewing. Sew to the front of the basket between the ears, from the 2nd to 6th round of the side of the basket (counting from the bottom). Using CC2, embroider a triangular nose on the muzzle. Insert 10.0mm safety eyes directly to the left and right of the muzzle, 5 stitches apart.

I hope you enjoyed making this Bear Basket! If you run into any problems feel free to ask me a question in the comments section below or through email at littleworldofwhimsy@gmail.com.