Garden objective: basket weaving

Second ever basket!

According to The Plan, one of my garden objectives is to grow materials for weaving;  willow is specifically cited.  I have a small stand of willows:  three in total and they grow near our little pond.  For the past three years I've harvested all the withies in winter after the leaves fall off, leaving the stumps (or stools as I believe they're called). 

These are not a particular variety grown for weaving;  they came from a wild tree near our house.  I took some wands in winter, stuck them in the ground where I wanted them, and they took.  However, the withies grow fairly straight and long and are perfectly adequate for my own personal use. 

And since I've been harvesting for three years, I've made exactly three baskets from them:  two small hand baskets, suitable for egg collection or vegetable harvest (the other one looks pretty similar to the one pictured), and a big basket I use for laundry with a handle on each side.

All three of my baskets are pretty rough looking, though the third one is slightly better than the second, which is a small improvement on the first.  I didn't prepare the withies particularly:  I wove them while still green and pliable, rather than letting them dry and resoaking.  I didn't peel them either.  The first basket--the laundry basket--is now two years old and still perfectly serviceable.

I have my eye on our yucca to try my hand at weaving a basket or two with its leaves;  they're more flexible and would require a different technique, but I think I'm up for it.  Like growing food, it's very satisfying to harvest raw materials and make them into something useful.