Rope Bowls

I made these rope bowls with about 100 ft of cotton clothesline.  I saw the tutorial from Tanis Knits and thought I'd give it a try.

I started with the big one.  My bobbin and thread were both purple and the basket ate through that like crazy.  Here's the bottom:

I zig-zagged over the center coil to help it stay strong.  And my purple only went about an inch up the sides:

I switched to gray at that point and that lasted forever.  I finished it with two handles, like the tutorial suggested.  I didn't really know how to finish off the last bit.  It's kind of sloppy.

I was just going to make one big bowl with all that rope, but as I coiled it upwards, I wasn't paying attention to the fact that I was making the opening narrower than I had intended.  With the remaining rope, I made another little bowl:

This had a gray upper thread, which turned the inside of the bowl gray.   My bobbin was turquoise, which appears as the outside of the bowl.

I went with an oval starting point instead of a little circle.  And, instead of handles, I just did a little loopity-loo for the end of the rope.

I'm not quite sure how to tidy that up.  

I really liked making these.  I'm still interested in trying this again and am very keen on using dye to provide some pops of color.  The weekend that I started making my first bowl, I went to a craft fair and saw some for sale.  The maker had turned them into purses and had dipped the bottoms in beeswax for a sturdy coating.  I don't think I'll go that far.