Or, at least the start of a basket.
There are so many different things I want to dabble in. Recently I had the bug to try my hand at pine needle basketry. Unfortunately, Minnesota isn’t home to coniferous trees that have very long needles (I think the red pine might get up to 5 or 7 inches long) and I didn’t relish the thought of ordering something like this online.
In my mind it was serendipitous that my uncle and aunt shared a picture of their yard after being on vacation for a couple of weeks. However, instead of commiserating over the amount of raking they were going to have to do with all the pine needles down, I asked if they’d be first willing to measure those needles. Lo and behold the ponderosa pines in their yard can produce some nice long needles. They were willing to play along, and a shoebox full of needles through the mail later, I was almost ready to start on my journey.
We had watched enough videos to get a sense of how these were made, but our library had the wonderful little book by Judy Mallow titled Pine Needle Basketry which was full of enough information to get me started, as well as plenty of inspiration on what can be done with such a simple assortment of materials.
Pine needles. Check.
Apart from a strong sewing needle and a tube, waxed thread is the only other material needed in the weaving? sewing? of these baskets. We had linen thread, we had some leftover bits of beeswax candle. A double burner and some dipping later, and we were able to make up a couple of spools of some waxed thread (and save quite a bit of money in the process).
The rest of the process is best described in detail in the book. But, essentially, the dried needles are soaked in boiling water for a bit.
Then the base of the basket is started by tightly coiling the thread around the needles, and then working your way around, sewing the group to the layer beneath, and adding more needles as the group thins out.
I love the idea of being able to create (with practice and patience) beautiful, useful objects from a couple of simple items. It’s a bit magical, and I’m hooked. I’m sure there will be more to share, including some finished vessels. For now, I’m having fun exploring the process.
