Home & Garden: Don't Chuck Those Basins!
Elizabeth Purinton

If you've ever been in the hospital, you were probably sent home with a small crescent-shaped plastic emesis basin. ("Emesis" is a fancy word for vomiting, puking, barfing ... whatever you call it.) Once you got home and the pain medication wore off, you may have wondered what to do with it. It looked like it should be useful for something other than its intended use, but its size and shape were a little strange. Perhaps you shook your head in puzzlement, then tucked the basin away in a drawer to await the flu season.

If that's the case, you can go get it out now. As the ideas below show, these shallow, easily-cleaned containers are wonderful and versatile. Also, you paid for the darned thing with your hospital bill, so you might as well get some use out of it!

• Personal banana keeper – bananas won’t get squashed in your lunch!
• Koi pond for Barbie
• Candy dish for your office desk (best filled with Good & Plenty, (pink) Canada mints or pink M&Ms.  (My basin is pink).
• Prosthetic smile for Barfo the Clown
• Screw the two “points” of the concave side to the wall for a handy saucer for car keys, sunglasses, etc.
• So handy for storing bottles of ipecac!  You’ll recognize it instantly in the cabinet.
• Foot bath for Chihuahuas
• Attach a ribbon and tie the basin around your waist.  Now you can carry your slot machine coins. Or line it with sand for your own portable ash tray.
• Crumb catcher for pregnant women
• Sweet 'N Low holder for when guests come to call.
• Banana split dish (Note from the editor: either line your basin with plastic wrap or foil or check to ensure that your basin is made of food-safe plastic before using it to serve food.)
• Sink into a large container plant as drinking pool for butterflies.
• Add to a large version of the Abandoned Car Garden project as the water hazard.  Don’t forget to add another car with just the back bumper showing (bonus points if it has a Massachusetts license plate).
• Guaranteed breathing room on the subway or bus! Just carry it at about waist height.  If people start moving in again, add a low groan.
• Neater hair cutting!  Place bowl on child’s head.  Place the basin at nape of neck.  As scissors follow bowl line, hair will fall into basin.
• Jell-O mold.  You can enjoy the gentle curve by itself or add two round molds for jell-o eyes and use this one for a jell-o mouth. (Note from the editor: either line your basin with plastic wrap or foil or check to ensure that your basin is made of food-safe plastic before using it to serve food.)
• Exquisite purse – punch small holes in the top vertical edge (not the rim) about every ½”,  Using yarn and a tapestry needle, weave the yarn in and out through the holes.  Do this again, using opposite technique, so that every hole is filled twice and no plastic is visible.  Using your crochet hook, insert hook through yarn between the holes.  Single crochet in each yarn segment. 
  • For a solid bag, work in single or double crochet.
  • For a mesh bag, do one row of single crochet, followed by a row of double crochet, chain 1 (skip next sc).
  • When bag is desired length work an eyelet row:  DC, chain 2, skip 2 sc.  Finish with a few row of pattern (SC or DC, ch 1).  Make draw string from chaining one or two strands of yarn in desired length. Knot firmly.  Weave through eyelets.
  • Bag will rest on hip curving to it nicely.  Plastic rim edge will shred any blouse fabric or the skin of your arm.  You may choose to overcast it with yarn or enjoy the pain.