Ice Cream Bicycle Basket - My OWN SCHNICKism

Hello Friday; Helloooo Weekend!

Okay.  So though I am a SCHNICK by marriage not by blood, I do seem to have SCHNICK ideas of my own and impressively they do work out once in a while.  :)

Last week our darling Krista with her armful of stuffed pets threw a little tantrum at not being able to maneuver her bike whilst holding her babies.   A whoooole lot of tears.  Draping her purse filled with her lovely creatures over the handlebars only caused her to really scream when she found she couldn't steer.  Okay... don the thinking caps.

What this poor child needed was a bicycle basket... and pretty darn quick.  Okay.  But have you seen how much WalMart and Canadian Tire want for those plastic woven baskets??  Not too mention the half hour drive to either store from home.  There's the little bit of dutch that has rubbed off on me mixing with my will to lead a environmentally-minded life.  I needed to come up with an idea.  Ice cream always helps with the brainstorming.

Thankfully the week prior our local grocery store had had ice cream on sale and so the freezer contained what I needed... brain food (aka sugar) AND a solution to our stuffy-toting problems!

This is what I came up with... an ice cream container bike basket.  But now how cool would one be tearing up the asphalt with Heavenly Hash splayed across the front??  Enter my yarn stash.  For those times when Derek has given me "the why are you keeping this?" look... this my dear is WHY.

Over a couple of days I found enough quiet moments to sit and hook.  I'm thinking of writing up a crochet pattern for this, but basically I used half-double-crochet stitches to mimic the shape of the ice cream container and cover it completely.  My tool of choice for making holes in the ice cream container to "sew" the basket cover in place was a handy-dandy two inch screw.

The next task was to consider HOW to attach the basket.  Crocheted straps would stretch with any item weighing more than a few stuffies - and the collection of rocks on my dining room table can attest to the treasures this one brings home.

I opted for plastic cabling zip-ties.  Finding my way around Derek's workshop had me raising my eyebrows though not questioning "WHY?  WHY are you keeping this??"  I completely get it... and I did find some.  Again, my trusty screw was the perfect tool to make the holes before threading the zip-ties through and attaching around the handlebars!

Voila!

Ofcourse, Sammy spotted my SCHNICK success and asked for one for her bicycle as well.  Never one to disappoint my children, I took to eating more ice cream.  ;)  A second basket has since been completed... in reverse colours so as not to match her sister of course!

A week of wind and rain has had biking on hold but today looks like the perfect day for a spin! And if anyone would like to treat me to a pint of ice cream; I'd be happy to hook you a basket.  :)

Jeanette