Knitted Tray Tute - A Great Gift Idea

Think of words you can put in front of tray: vanity; bits & bobs; candy; sweets; cosmetic; accessory; cutlery; letter; nail polish; ribbon; pencil; desk; organiser; make-up; storage; essentials and lots, lots more.

However, you say it, whatever you put in it, everyone can always use a tray.

Ever thought of making your own?  How about making them as gifts, stacking several sizes together or filling them with goodies for British Mother's Day coming up in less than three weeks or Easter on 5 April this year?

I love to knit them - that way I can choose my own dimensions, yarns, trims and colours and today I'm sharing with you how I do it.

Knit Your Own Tray
(finished size approx 8.5" x 8.5" x 3")

For this tray, I'm using a ball of Isaac Mizrahi's Lexington Craft yarn sold exclusively at Michael's  (don't you just love him on Project Runway All Stars?).  All the colourways are named after Manhattan neighbourhoods off Lexington Ave, how appropriate for me?!!!, and this one's Stuyvesant, I'm loving it.

Yarn details:

1 skein of Lexington Craft Yarn or equivalent - you'll use every last bit of the skein so don't go leave long tail ends or make your tray larger unless you don't mind buying more!

Weight: Super Bulky (6)

Contents: 85% acrylic, 15% wool

Skein Weight 4.93 oz/140 g

Yardage: 69 yd/63 m

Knitting Gauge: 7 sts - 10 rows = 4" (10 cm)

A small amount of British Double Knitting/ US Light Worsted (3) in a matching colour to join finished seams

Tools and Notions:

I used 8.0 mm, US - 11 knitting needles 

NB: the recommended needle for this yarn is 12.75 mm/17 US but using a small needle gives a denser knit which in turn makes a firmer and more stable storage tray/basket

Row counter or pen & paper to keep track of your progress

Super large-eyed finishing needle

Required Stitches:

Cast on and Cast off and British Moss/US Seed stitch.

NB: The pattern is worked in a stitch that has different names on either side of the Atlantic, in Britain we call it moss stitch and in the US it's called seed stitch.  Confusion can arise due to a variation stitch based on this original stitch known as a double moss stitch in Britain but  in the US called, you guessed it, moss stitch!

Tension:

My tension is approx 9 stitches and 19 rows to 4" (10 cm).  

If your tension is looser you'll want to use a smaller needle as a looser tension won't give your work the firmness required for the walls to stand up on your tray/basket.  Also, it's likely you won't have enough yarn in 1 skein to finish the project if you work more loosely than this.

The Base (make 1):

With 8 mm/11 US needles cast on 19 stitches.  

Work in British moss/US seed stitch

Row 1: Knit 1, *Purl 1, Knit 1, repeat from * to end.

Repeat this row until you have knitted a square.(approx 28 rows)

Cast off in moss/seed stitch.

The Walls (make 4):

With 8 mm/11 US needles cast on 19 stitches

Work in British moss/US seed stitch

Row 1: Knit 1, *Purl 1, Knit 1, repeat from * to end.

Repeat for a further 8 rows (9 rows in total).

Cast off in moss/seed stitch.

Finishing:

Sew all ends into finished pieces and block pieces if you like to do that kind of thing - I didn't bother,

  

All finished seams are visible on the outside of the tray and seams are sewn together using a backstitch.  

internal seams

external seams

Ensure you join walls with the cast off edge of each creating the top open edge of the tray.

cast off edge

The cast off edge (above) creates a cleaner finished edge for the top of the tray in preference to the cast on edge (below).

cast on edge

Sew each wall to the base and sew each side wall to the next side wall to complete the tray.

After completion, I sprayed the tray with water and shaped/straightened walls as required then left to dry.

How To Vary The Size:

It's easy to make more knitted trays and even knitted baskets using the same method, just adapt how many stitches you cast on for your base and walls and how many rows you knit.  Keep an eye on your tension too, remember you want to create quite a firm knitted fabric so try smaller needles than usual for your chosen yarn to achieve best results.  Whatever size tray/basket you create you always need an odd/uneven number of stitches to create the alternating British moss/US seed stitch pattern.

Here're a couple of others I've made too:

Above is a basket knitted using two British DK/Light Worsted weight yarns at the same time - one pink and one purple and the walls are square as is the base - just knit 5 square pieces and join together.

And this one is again knitted with two British DK/Light Worsted weight yarns together, one cream and one brown and then the last five rows of each wall are knitted with Sirdar Foxy (Mink) bought years ago in England.  The fluffiness added weight to the basket walls so I inserted a 'cut to height' wooden kebab/bbq skewer inside the four corner seams for extra support.

If you do make a knitted tray or basket using my tute I'd love to see so please share via one of these links

Thanks to Michaels for showing some fb love :D

updated 12 June 2015:
and going all fangirl over this IG like from the man himself!!!

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Disclosure: 

This post contains Amazon and Craftsy affiliate links for which I am paid compensation on click-through purchases (at no additional cost to you). Otherwise, the post is for informational purposes only and all opinions are my own.

Copyright: 

Uncredited reproduction of all content, text and images on this site is prohibited. All content, text and images must be credited to Chris Dodsley @made by ChrissieD and include a link back to this site.

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