Pine Needle Basket coming right along.

April 6, 2011

I went to the Green Cove Springs, FL, Clay County Fair yesterday.  I went with my friend Max and her daughter to do demonstrations.  They did bead weaving and I did Pine Needle basket coiling.  A fun time was had by all and I was pleasantly surprised to find so many people interested in the basket work.  Unfortunately I didn't think to take my camera...

I took several examples of my work.  Two that I made last year or so, the red and black one and the one I did with copper wire and Ivy vine.  Max brought along 3 pieces that I had done for her and her family.  The 'fruit bowl' blue and green, the little purple and blue one I made for her daughter and my only waxed piece a trivet.

I took examples of different types of Pine needles, I even collected some the day before on a nice long bicycle ride.  I also took my books and lots of different center pieces along with examples of threads and cards in case anyone wanted to find me.

The weather was gorgeous and I took my 'triangle basket' to work on.  So I thought you might like to see what I have so far.

This shot is from the top. The green stripe is some grass my room mate pulled for me.  I believe it is Muly grass, also know as sweet grass.

Here it is from an angle so that you can see how deep it is so far.  It is a little over 2 in. and I am shooting for 3...I think.  I have incorporated green Long Leaf Pine needle's that Dana sent me from Georgia.  Wish I had some more.

This one is the bottom so you can see how much my stitching has improved.  :-))))

As you can see it is around 9 in. at it's widest.

I have another center like this one with the holes already drilled.  My intentions, always subject to modification ya know, is to make another just like it, only a little bit larger diameter.  Then I will turn it upside down and place it over this one and it will serve as a top.  That way I have to independent baskets or one with a nice tight lid.  We'll see how it goes.

I am using waxed linen on this one and I must tell you it is much easier to work with than the unwaxed threads, even when I drag them over the was they are not as nice as this is.  Unfortunately this is the only color I can get her locally and I am getting a bit tired of brown.  It also comes in very small pkgs.  20 yards for $1.99 at Hobby Lobby, I am already on the 4th pkg at this point.  I may have to break down and order some from off line.  I am just not sure whether I want to order alot in the same color or lots of colors????

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

TADA!

Today is April 25th and I am not feeling particularly inspired of late.

I did complete my triangular basket, so without further adoooooo...

My Wedge weave.

April 5, 2012

This is an old Navajo weave done at an angle.  It usually creates a scalloped edge, but for some reason mine stayed pretty consistently straight.  I think it has to do with the fact that for so many years I worked so hard at NOT having scalloping on my edge/selvedge. I think I, simply out of habit worked too hard in this case, to keep my tension consistent.  LOL

I absolutely love the colors, they are very Spring like.  Unfortunately, until I was already well into the weaving I had thought this was cotton yarn.  My mistake, the white is cotton, but the green and pink are 100% acrylic.  Way tooooooo spongey for my liking.  Makes great throw blankets, not such great tapestry weaving.

It was a learning process and while I found the tapestry weaving on a frame loom much easier on my body than the backstrap has been since the car accident, I bored with it quickly.  I just can't seem to get inspired to weave.  But I do like it for a little table topper!

Pine needle basket weaving/coiling.

March 29, 2011

I haven’t been doing much in the way of weaving here lately. But I do keep plugging away at my Pine basket work.

This one is for me. I am going to make myself a basket for my ‘basket tools’. The center is Oak and I have tried some of the local grasses…the green part that you see. I think it is Muly grass, also known as sweetgrass. It measures 9 1/2 in. x 8 1/4 in. so far. Of course I have my quality control personnel on duty also.

I have another piece of this same wood and I may even try my hand at a lid for this basket...I am just not sure I can get the shapes to match up even though the centers are roughly the same size and shape...we'll see!