In which I digress still further

As I made progress on my rectangular crochet granny square lunchbox:

crochet lunch box
The crocheted lunch box takes shape

(which I plan to line), I wondered if it were possible to stiffen the acrylic fibers in such a way that a lining would not be need to support the structure, so after I had nearly completed one last round of the crochet lunchbox to-be:

crochet lunch box
Closing in on the last round of the bottom of the crochet lunch box

I started on yet another aspect of this enterprise, and crocheted a small basket that could be used to hold assorted items:

A small crocheted basket ready to be soaked in glue as I digress still further
A small crocheted basket ready to be soaked in glue as I digress still further

After consulting a friend who has some familiarity with adhesives for sculptural purposes and finding this recipe for a glue mixture to stiffen crochet, I assembled all of the materials I would need:

glue for a crochet basket
Gathering the materials to fortify the small basket with glue

then measured out the glue into a container that I had saved from a dinner at our favorite nearby Chinese restaraunt:

preparing the glue
Pouring glue into a container in which I can soak the small basket

Next, I added an equal amount of water and stirred:

glue and water
I then add an equal amount of water to the glue

added one small basket:

crochet basket in glue
The basket with one side soaking in the glue mixture

turned it over:

glue soaked crochet basket
A glue infused crochet granny square basket

then rung out as much of the glue and water mixture as I could, and set it out to dry:

crochet basket drying
A crochet basket waiting to dry

At some point I expect that I will reach the end of these digressions, and work my way back to where this all began: with a face purse.