The Northwest Basket Weavers' Guild website has instructions on how to weave a pine needle basket, by Marion Gee .
Pine trees are dry-loving trees, so my first thought, living on the wet West Coast, is that there aren't very many pine trees around here and why would they put these instructions up?
Then I began to look around me. Isn't it funny how we don't see things until they become important to us? There's a pine tree across the parking lot from my house; there's a trio of them standing by the parking lot of the Lynn Valley library; and the very longest needles I found on my usual trap line of travels belong to the cluster of trees outside the Black Bear Pub, off Lynn Valley Road (I've never been in, but I hear it's a great place; I just happen to walk past a lot).
I collect several pounds of needles in short order, though since it was already into October, they were somewhat past their prime.
Here is the little sampler that I've made so far: I turned it into a pincushion.
Pine trees are dry-loving trees, so my first thought, living on the wet West Coast, is that there aren't very many pine trees around here and why would they put these instructions up?
Then I began to look around me. Isn't it funny how we don't see things until they become important to us? There's a pine tree across the parking lot from my house; there's a trio of them standing by the parking lot of the Lynn Valley library; and the very longest needles I found on my usual trap line of travels belong to the cluster of trees outside the Black Bear Pub, off Lynn Valley Road (I've never been in, but I hear it's a great place; I just happen to walk past a lot).
I collect several pounds of needles in short order, though since it was already into October, they were somewhat past their prime.
Here is the little sampler that I've made so far: I turned it into a pincushion.
Some technical notes: this basket is only about an inch and a half in diameter, just a teaser. I used morning glory (bindweed) instead of raffia, which was fine for working with but dried a lot more brittle than I expected. I finished the top edge with a blanket stitch in linen thread.
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rebecca graham