My mother gave me this wonderful vintage knitting basket the last time I visited her.

She was an avid knitter for much of her life–though now her favorite craft is needlepoint. But I don’t recall her ever using this knitting basket. I think it’s a recent tag-sale find. Like mother, like daughter: I can never resist a tag sale and must have gotten my love of vintage treasures from her.

It’s quite cleverly designed. As you can see, it has a wooden frame that enables it to stand on its own.

But it can also be collapsed for easy carrying–though it doesn’t hold as much when it is collapsed.

I recently saw exactly this same knitting basket–though with a different flowered fabric–in the wonderful British series All Creatures Great and Small. (Highly recommended!) The series is based on the books of James Herriot and follows the adventures of a veterinarian in Yorkshire from the late thirties to the early fifties. In one episode, his sweet wife, Helen, has her knitting stored in just such a basket.

And on a recent tag-sale outing I was delighted to see that a twenty-something woman had snapped up a basket just like mine. These old objects seem to have so much more charm and personality than new things.