Pine Needle Basket Making—Step by Step Instructions

Hi it's Jennifer. Welcome back to My  Flagstaff Home. I am here today to teach you how   to make a pine needle basket. I hope you'll  come along with me and be sure to subscribe. So, yes, today I'm going to teach you how  to make a pine needle basket. These are   fairly simple to make it just takes a little  bit to get the hang of it and then once you do   you can sit mindlessly watching a movie  or something and make yourself a basket.   So what I'm going to do in this video is I'm going  to start by giving you a list of your supplies   and then I'm going to explain to you how  to prepare your pine needles and then   the process of making the basket. If you  want to come back and refer to this video,   I'm going to give you the time stamp for where  you can find different parts of the video. So I'm   going to put them right on the screen as I speak.  So where you can find the supplies is right here,   preparing the pine needles will be the next  step, then we'll go into beginning your basket   and making that initial tight coil in the very  center. Then i'm going to talk about shaping the   basket and finally i'm going to talk about how  to finish your basket. So you can refer back to   this and see where those time stamps are and then  just forward ahead through the video as needed.   So okay let's talk about the supplies needed for  your basket first of all you need pine needles   and you can you have to be kind of uh particular  about the kind of pine needles you get they need   to be at least five inches long at least five  inches otherwise it would just be too difficult to   keep adding pine needles in as you're making your  basket where i live we have ponderosa pine trees   and they have really long needles so i don't know  if you can see let me go from here to here like   that one's probably about eight inches long and  so the longer the better really so if you are in   an area where you have long pine needles get the  longest ones you can you'll find it so much easier   but five inches is good so make sure like if i  had just to show you i had this a bag this size   this is a gallon zip top bag if i had this many  i would have plenty of needles to make a small   basket you can also if you don't live in a  place where they have pine needles look on etsy   because etsy has people on there who sell pine  needles um maybe i will even be selling pine   needles sometimes i do that so so if you don't  have them in your area you can do that but also   if you don't have them in your area but maybe  you do not too far away from home or at a place   you vacation bring a bag with you and scoop  them all up because you can get them for free   okay so you need to have pine needles you also  need to have a thread for these and there are   different kinds of threads that people use but  the one i'm going to be using and i think is the   easiest to work with is a waxed polyester thread  and i've seen waxed linen before i don't know what   that would be like i've also seen people and i  personally have tried using a wax coated raffia   and that does work and makes some really beautiful  baskets but it's much more fragile and will break   and so i just find that waxed polyester allows you  to tug on each stitch and make it nice and tight   and it also the stitches don't slip so this is a  large roll of wax polyester thread and i got this   on amazon i'm going to put a link for this and  then when you click on it it will give you options   for all different kinds of colors and i think this  was i think this was like 4.95 for this big roll   they also i'm going to put a link in the space  below for these smaller rolls of wax polyester and   you can get a set of six at the time of filming  this video you could get a set of six of these   for 6.99 and they'll make several baskets so um  need to pick one of those kinds you will need   a a tapestry needle um i think it's called a  tapestry needle you need it it needs to be about   two inches long so you can see here about two  inches long needs to have a large eye and a pointy   end not a blunt end so i will also put a link for  a an appropriate needle in the space below but on   amazon all i found were needles that came in  packs of 30. so yeah i didn't find any fewer   than that but i think a pack of 30 was 5.99 so you  could probably find it at your local craft store   or sewing sewing store but remember two inches  long large eye pointy end all right and then   oh and and some needles like yarn uh yarn needles  i think they're called those can probably be too   fat you don't want it to be too fat just imagine  you're kind of sticking this through pine needles   and if it's if the needle is too thick it's  going to break the needles as it goes through   you're also going to need a gauge mine is  a copper gauge but you do not need this   um this is going to help you keep your pine needle  bundle the same thickness throughout making your   basket so all you need is a one inch piece of  a drinking straw that's it so you can you know   pick one up the next time you're in a restaurant  or going through a fast food place or whatever   and not a milkshake straw not a smoothie  straw you don't need a big fat one just a   regular sized drinking straw and just cut  off one inch you're also going to need a   pair of sturdy scissors because you are going  to be cutting the needles at one point and so   you don't want a flimsy or really tiny pair of  scissors so you know just a good sturdy pair of   scissors and for part of the basket you're going  to need a pair of needle nose pliers in the center   you'll see when we get there it's kind  of difficult to pull the needle through   where the thread is completely wrapped  around and it helps to have a pair of pliers   a regular pair of pliers would probably do but  having the pointy end is very helpful especially   like if you're getting into corners of the basket  it's just easier take it in to get in there   okay so those are the supplies so next we're going  to talk about preparing the pine needles so for   this part you take your needles and you need to  wash them because these things have been out in   the elements and critters have been crawling on  them and doing their business on them and since   you're going to be making some beautiful thing  you're bringing in your home you need to get   your pine needles as clean as possible i wouldn't  go so far as to say that they will be sterilized   and let me let me say one thing when you're  thinking about what to use your basket for i'm   gonna tell you two things not to use a basket for  first of all you don't want to put food directly   in it because no matter how clean we get this  it's not going to be completely clean and so you   wouldn't want to take that risk plus anything from  food like if you put dinner rolls or something in   here if they had grease or butter or anything  like that on them they would actually stain the   basket stain the needles and so if you did want  to use it for just for putting like dinner rolls   in you could open a napkin and put it in there and  then place your things on top but you don't want   to put food directly on there the other thing you  don't want to make is a hot pad like to put a hot   casserole dish or a pan or something on because  your needles are going to start out damp when   you're working with them but they will dry out and  if you put something really hot on them they will   burn and so you don't want to do that otherwise  sky's the limit for what you can use these for   so you're going to take your needles and you're  going to first wash them so i'm going to pop in   a picture here to show you that i just used a  plastic a sturdy plastic shoe box you could use   a bucket you could use a utility sink or any you  know any kind of thing like that you could even   use your kitchen sink for this but in the next  step i'm going to discourage you from using your   your kitchen sink and i'll tell you in a second  why so put it in some warm water put your needles   in some some warm water and then put some dish  soap in there and just swish it around you'll see   the dirt come off of it and if they look really  dirty you might want to rinse them and then do   this step again but after you've swished them  around a bit just give them a really good rinse   and the next step is where you don't want to use  your kitchen sink for this because you're going   to put it in really hot water it doesn't have to  be boiling water to pour over your needles but   it needs to be hot enough that it would be  uncomfortable for you to keep your hands in   and so if the water that comes out of your tap  is that hot then go for it otherwise you can   heat up water in you know in your microwave  or on the stove and pour it over the top   so the reason why you don't want to use a kitchen  sink for this is that there could be some sap on   your needles or some of the pitch could come out  of the little end it's called the fascicle it's   that cap at the end of the group of pine needles  some of it can come out and i've done this before   and it will get on the side of the sink and then  you have to scrub it really hard to get it off   so it's just easier to use a bucket or you know  a sturdy plastic box or something like that so   you're going to pour the hot water over the top of  the pine needles and then you're going to let them   sit for at least 30 minutes but closer to  an hour is better this is the step where   we're going to be getting the pine needles to be  flexible pine needles are actually quite brittle   and so if you tried to bend them to make the  coil the pine needle would snap and you can see   that a damp pine needle can be twisted and it's  not it's not going to break and so that's what   you're doing you're soaking them it's you're  soaking them to get them nice and soft but also   soaking them in that very hot water is going to  be another step in cleaning them off so after   the um the pine needles have been sitting there  for an hour and i have been asked this question do   you need to replace the water as it starts to cool  down and continue to have really hot water on top   the answer is no you don't need to do that just  start with really hot it'll help the pine needles   absorb the water and then um and then when you hit  an hour your pine needles will be in perfect shape   so after that rinse or drain off your needles and  i'm going to tell you about how to store them to   get ready for using them so for the needles that  you're going to use in making your basket you're   going to take them and wrap them in a piece of  damp paper towel so if you have a whole bunch   of needles set the others aside and and let them  let them dry i'll talk about storing them for long   term in just a second but the ones you're going  to be using you know take a good size handful   wrap them in a damp paper towel and then just put  them in a plastic bag you'll just kind of keep   that beside you and reach in for replenishing your  needles when you need them so let's say you have a   whole bunch of pine needles and you want to clean  them all at one time but you're only going to be   using a small amount at a time so go ahead and  clean all of them and then spread the ones that   you're not going to be using right now spread them  out on a sheet of newspaper or something so that   they can dry out and then once they're dry you can  store them away to use at another time but don't   store them in a plastic bag even if you think the  pine needles are completely dry they are probably   not completely dry on the inside and if you  store them in a plastic bag i've done this before   you come back and you open them up and uh there's  like i opened my bag up and there was black powder   all over inside and don't even think about trying  to wash them off wash that stuff off because it   kind of stains the the needles and and they're  they're really just basically ruined so make   sure you store them in a paper bag or a shoe box  or something that has a little bit of ventilation   and can also absorb some of the moisture that  may come out later and then you can save them for   months so the but the bag that you're gonna be  using um with that has the damp pine needles   this you can just um you can seal it up and sit  it out if you're finished on your working on your   basket and you're gonna come back tomorrow you  can just do that if you think you're you may be   leaving it for longer than just like overnight  uh putting it in the refrigerator is a good idea   because it will keep them from getting mold but  if you are gonna leave them for longer let's say   that you've decided that you're not going to  be able to work on your basket for more than a   week it really is just best to take them out dry  them flat and put them away not stored in plastic   and then when you're ready to use them again  you don't have to go through the washing step   you just put them in the hot water and let them  sit for an hour and they'll be ready to use again   so that's how you get your needles all prepped  so now we're going to get into making the basket   so for the kind of basket that i'm going to  show you how to make today we're going to   cut off the fascicle at the end of each pine  needle so there's that little part at the end   i also refer to this as the cap and so we're  going to cut that off so that there are three   individual pieces some pine needles have actually  more than one more than three needles attached   some of them will have like fiber or so but  anyway um if you have any that are broken if   if they're if they've broken in any way just get  rid of those you just want to make sure that the   needles you have are at least five inches  long so you're gonna take the your sturdy   scissors and you're just gonna cut the end off i  noticed on this one that i when i cut it i have   two long pieces and i have one short one so i'm  just gonna get rid of the short one and not use that you can cut these a few at a time   so i decided to put down a piece of white paper  here so you could see it better with the contrast and then the caps of the needles that you  cut off can just be thrown away you won't   need those anymore so the next thing we're  going to do is we're going to take some   needles and we're going to start threading them  through the gauge here and right through the end   and you want them all to be in the same direction  so you'll notice that pine needles have a pointy   and a pointy end on one side and then the blunt  end where you've cut off the cap and so put them   so that all of the needles are facing in the  same direction and you just slide them through you slide them through the gauge  like that see how it's sliding around   we want to get it a little tighter than that all right so let me show you how how this  slides so you can see that it doesn't the   gauge doesn't fall right off when i when i  tip it like this but it still slides around   and that that is a good thickness on there if  you want your you can make it tighter than that   but it will be harder to get the needle through i  want mine to be a little bit tighter the tighter   you get it the harder it will be to get the  needle through the pot all the pine needles   the the bundle i i will refer to this as the  bundle so okay so the next thing you're gonna do   is you're going to take keep your gauge down  here towards you and i've got my points down here so now we need our thread so i take the thread  and i do about two arms lengths of thread   and you'll notice when you pull the thread  through the needle some of the wax will bunch   up and kind of come off and also you'll notice  that the first time you actually start pulling it   pulling the thread through the pine needles  the wax will come off and that is okay because   there will still be wax that's left on the  thread so we're going to start by tying a knot around the bundle of needles okay so we have we have a knot tied there and i'm  gonna cut a little bit of this off because what   we're going to do is start wrapping this thread  around the bundle and i'm just going to wrap this   little end piece i'm going to wrap it right in  there so let me move the paper away a little   bit so i just turned that light off because i  think it's going to be easier for you to see this   so now what we're going to do is we're going to  wrap this thread around the bundle to get about   two inches so you want to make sure that as you're  wrapping can you see this that it's that each   uh wrap is side by side with the previous one  and i'm covering this little end piece as i go   so you're just going to wrap and wrap and wrap if they start getting farther apart you  can just kind of cinch them together and then you want it to be as i said about two  inches long but it doesn't have to be exact so   you can see right here this is about two  inches i'm seeing a little bit of pine   needle in there so i'm going to kind of cinch  cinch this together so that it's all nice and   tight so there you go and  then your gauges down here   all right so the next thing you're going to  do is you want to secure this in place so   you're going to take your needle and  you're gonna push it through one side of the bundle of needles through the other right  through the thread so you see this right here   so you're going to push it through that pull it through this is where see it's  a little bit hard to get through this is   where a pair of pliers can be useful but  it's even more useful in just a minute okay so we give that a good tug and now what  you've wrapped on there is gonna stay on   because you've put that stitch through so the  next thing we're gonna do is we're gonna cut   off this end portion don't get too close  it's okay to let some of the pine needles   show because if you get too close and then  you start coiling then if the pine needles   are too short there's not enough sticking out  the end then this thread is going to come off so just going to take these scissors  and i'll show you in a second how much   okay so you want to leave about about that much so  that's probably about a quarter of an inch maybe   maybe a little bit more than that all right  so the next thing we're going to do is we're   going to make the coil in the center so let me  give you an idea of what's going to happen here   we're going to fold this over like that  and in just just a second don't start doing   this yet with me because we're going to make  stitches and then we're going to fold it again so i'm actually going to cut the  ends a little bit shorter than that   so you can see how much how much i left there  just a little bit out so we're going to fold it   over once and then we're going to fold it over  again and you may need to wrap a little bit more   around this part and i'll show you because it's  looking like i'm going to need to so we'll fold   it one time over and then i'm going to take  this thread and i'm going to stick it through   from the piece where the thread is coming out i'm  going to stick it through this other longer side so can you see here   and then i'm gonna pull it and give it a good  tug now the the thread does start to separate   and show the pine needle pine needles a little bit  and that is okay so then to make it nice and tight   i'm going to stick it back through so it's going  to go through both thicknesses of the bundle and this is where i'm going to take my pliers and give it a tug through there okay we give it a nice tug and it looks like that   so now we're gonna take this and  we're gonna fold it over again and then from this piece that is on  the inside i'm gonna stick it through   that outer part that just got  folded over and tug that through so you can see right there so now what i  need to do is i need to put i need to wrap   a little bit more thread around here so we get the   complete coil so i'm just going  to do it a little bit further so okay so you see how how much further i did  so now what i'm going to do is i'm going to   take the needle and i'm going to go all  the way through all three thicknesses   so watch your fingers on this because when you're  pushing hard to get through the needles it's   easy to stab yourself so get your try  to get your fingers out of the way so   don't put your thumb over this side  you might want to hold it that way and it's going to be you know you're  going to have to tug pretty hard but   you won't have to do that through the whole  basket so we're going to pull that through all right and now we have done one  of the most difficult parts of the   whole basket so it gets easier from here  all right so next we're going to start   wrapping the coil that shows the pine needles  around and we're going to start making stitches   but my bundle is getting kind of short here so i  need to add in more pine needles this is something   you have to do frequently no matter how long  your pine needles are you have to keep adding   them frequently so what you do is you take um a  needle or two i like to work one at a time and   you take the pointy end and you try to stick it  toward the middle of the toward the center of the   bundle it doesn't have to be in the exact center  but i'll show you what you don't want to happen what you don't want is to put it through and have  it come out like that it needs to actually stick   inside the bundle bundle so it doesn't need to  be exactly in the center but it needs to not push   through so it's exposed i uh some people do this  differently some people put the pointy end um the   the other way like down here but i just find that  it makes for um sharp places on your basket if you   look closely you can see the ends of some of the  pine needles because they you know eventually the   pine needles end and they show up and if you put  your needles in the other direction all of these   are super pointy and sharp and you can stick  yourself just get several in there so that you   can see that now the bundle is quite a bit longer  and really every couple of stitches especially   when you get going on the basket every couple  of stitches you're going to add new pine needles all right so now you can see how that's longer  that's where it was and now there's more so   what we're going to do next is we're going to  take we're going to start making our stitches   and we actually need to start okay let me show  you here so when i where i pulled this through   we're actually we actually need to be over  here with the needle and so i'm going to   push this back through one more time i'm going  to use my pliers here all right so we go around and now we stitch it take your your thread and go around  and then you're going to stick it to   the part of the coil that's wrapped completely and thread and pull it the first stitch is probably going  to look a lot like where you just wrapped and   then then when once you start going see how  i'm going to leave a little bit of a space   i'm going to move my gauge over so we're  going to leave a little bit of a space   and then i'm gonna stick  it into that next bundle in like that and then we get a little stitch with  a space in between for this first round the   stitches are going to stay fairly close together  because the larger your basket gets the farther   apart the stitches get so you want them to be  close at first so now i'm going to wrap it again   and then stick it into that inside bundle and sometimes you have to move  them a little bit to spread apart   so you see that and then  we're going to wrap it again so you kind of want them to be as evenly  spaced apart as possible but at the beginning   it really doesn't matter that much  because you can shape it better   as you keep going so see these two got  really close together it's not hard to pull them apart and then as we get to this um  corner here we're gonna start folding it over   so i'm gonna wrap the thread around and  then i'm pushing the top over with my finger give it a good tug and i'm going to move  the gauge a little bit and i'm going to   pull it over some more so i'm going  to wrap my stitch push it down and stitch in so you can see there it's starting to curve   pull my gauge down a little bit  wrap over push it down and hold it so moving that stitch over just a little  bit and then i'm gonna turn it some more   see there's the end of one of the needles and  if that had been the pointy end it would poke me   right now so i'll take the stitch and  wrap it push this down with my finger and make this stitch and then wrap again see how  it's starting to curl around now your thread is probably getting  short and i'm going to show you how to add in a new piece of thread so see how we're doing there wrap  this around i'm just gonna do   see how how short my thread is getting so i'm  just gonna maybe make let's see one or two more stitches yeah i'm gonna do one more and  then i'm gonna add in a new piece of bread all right so this is what i have so far and some  of my stitches are close together than others   so i can kind of just take my fingernail and  sort of move them apart a little bit but it   doesn't matter if they're perfectly spaced or not  because as you shape the basket as it gets bigger   you can spread the stitches apart or put them  closer together depending on how you're stitching   so now we need to replace this piece of thread  this is where another needle comes in handy   but you don't have to have another needle  so i'm going to take this off set it aside i'm going to get another two arms length of thread now i will often use four arms lengths of  thread at the beginning because you're using   so much thread by making that coil um but  it can be kind of cumbersome to deal with   a length of thread that's that long so you might  just starting with two two arms lengths is is good   okay so what we do now is um so here's  where the short piece of thread is   right so what we're going to do is we're  going to take this new piece of thread   we're going to put it in approximately the  same place as this but on the back side so i'm going to put it through  so that when it comes through   the front side it's the needle  is very close to this thread and then pull it through so that it is oh  maybe four inches long now you take this   this was your original short piece and you  take this and pull it around to the back where   that new piece of the tail of that new piece  of thread is and you're gonna tie a knot   with those two pieces so i'm just  gonna knot them together one and   two now what some people do at this point is  they cut the tails off and they use a lighter   and kind of burn it because the wax in there will  melt and hold that in place but the reason i don't   like doing that is because it always leaves a  burned wax spot that you can see you might want   to do it at the beginning while you're learning  how to do this but i i think you end up with a lot   nicer look when you don't do the the part with  burning the ends so what i do instead is i cut   these two tails now so i don't know maybe about  four inches long but so they're the same length and this is this is where it's nice  to have two needles because you can   leave that one needle at the end of  the long piece and then just have   you know your second needle to put on these  but it's it's not hard to re-thread it so i re-thread the needle with these two  tails sorry the light changed in here my um   it's the afternoon and the light kind of  changed so um so anyway what i'm gonna   do now is i'm gonna stick this needle in near  where the knot is and i'm just going to run it   on the inside kind of through through a  little bit i'm going to try to show you here where it can't be seen inside do you see  where the needle is coming out right there   and so i'm just kind of hiding the ends  inside i definitely need my pliers on this and then i tug that through   and i cut it off i cut those two tails  off be sure not to cut your new piece but and then you can hardly even see where that  is okay i'm going to see if i can do something   about the light here without okay i think  that's better okay so now i'm gonna re-thread   this long piece now we've got a  new long piece of thread on there and we can keep going so if i look at my bundle here it's getting  a little thin and so i'm gonna put some more   pine needles in there pointy side pointy end in and had a little  broken spot on the end you just if if there's   a little piece of broken pine needle just break  that part off and use the rest of the needle all right so i've got some more on there  okay and i'm just going to keep going   like i was before wrapping  around to make the stitches and remember when you get to the a curve again  you bend you bend this over you wrap the thread   around hold the thread down with your finger and  hold that bend over and then make your stitch until you round the curve and my stitches kind  of came together a little bit so i'm going to   do this same thing until i get all the way around  to where this wrapped part of the the bundle we're   going to make these stitches all the way till we  get to the end of that so just do the same thing   all right so it the stitches  have gone all the way around here   and just to give you a point of reference  i have one two three four five seven so   i have 24 stitches around here you may have a few  more than that you may have a few less than that   and sometimes like you'll see places where the  ends of of the pine needles are sticking out   and they're looking a little shaggy if  they're right along this outside of the   coil they're going to get covered up with the  next round but if any of them stick out along   the sides you can just trim those off so now  we're at the point where we're we've reached   the stitches so we're going from you know from  us one stitch to these separated stitches and so what you do is it's kind of the same deal  as what you were doing before so you wrap the   thread around but now you've got a specific  place to put your your needle so you go   in i've got this first stitch right here and  i'm going to stick the needle just to the left   of that stitch if you put it to the right of  the stitch it's not going to hold it's not   going to grip so it goes just to the left of that  stitch and when you push it through you want it   to come out the needle to come out just to the  left of that same stitch on the opposite side and this is so much easier to do than going  through these completely wrapped bundle parts so and just so you know while i was finishing the  coil here um i didn't show you that part i added   pine needles twice to that and i have one  pine needle piece that's sticking out here   so i'm just gonna pull that out so i wrap around  again i go i move over to the next stitch i go   in with the needle just to the left on the back  and when i push it through on the front i want   to come just to the left on the front you can go  actually directly into the thread that's fine too   it actually makes a much neater stitch but it can  be kind of difficult to do as a beginner and give   it a good tug so each time you give it a good  tug and that's what's so nice about using waxed   thread is that it really does grip on itself so to  the left on the back and to the left on the front go around again on the back side to the left of  the stitch come through on the front just to the   left of the stitch and you just keep doing that  and what we're going to do right now is just form   the base so if i show you this tiny little basket  which is what i'm going to make here for you to   see um so i form a little base and then once i  get it you know my base formed and then i start   to form the sides that part is really simple to do  so i'm going to go ahead and work on this and get   my base made all right so as i was working on this  there were a couple of things i wanted to show you   so first of all when you're working on this  and you're making your stitches you might   notice that your stitches are not evenly spaced  and it's a good time to go ahead and just kind   of move a stitch over before you stick your  needle in if it's not in the right place just   go ahead and shift it at that time and then um  the other thing is that i wanted to show you   hopefully you'll be able to see this you'll be  able to see where i put the stitch to the to the   or put the needle in to the left of the stitch  but like on this one right here i actually went   straight into the stitch i went to the left  of the stitch on the back but i came through   exactly into the stitch on the front that's called  a split stitch and it actually makes a much neater   look than if you come just to the left of it  beginners usually will do this thing where you   come just to the left as you get more advanced and  it's easier for you you can try to come straight   through the middle of the stitch and then it makes  the the pattern of the basket let me show you it   makes this swirl pattern look much more smooth  so you can decide which which thing works best   for you the other thing is as as you're stopping  to add needles if your gauge starts to get too too loose you want to add needles and you always  want it to be like when you're looking at your   bundle here at the end you want different  lengths you don't want to have it like   all of them here and let it get really  short and then start adding a bunch in   because then you'll have a bunch of pine  needles that all end at the same time which   means you'll have a bunch of shaggy ends sticking  out instead of dispersing them in different places   so every couple of stitches at the beginning  maybe you get a few stitches in before you add   add some in but as the basket starts to get bigger  you make like two stitches and then you add a few   more needles and you make a couple more stitches  and then you add some more in so i'm going to keep   working on this base okay so i've gotten this far  and i need to change out my thread so i thought   i would do that again with you so you can see  so i'm going to take another two arms lengths and thread the needle alright so remember  this is the this is the short piece   so i'm going to come in on the opposite  side as that in the same general area and when i come out on the front side i'm going to  come as close as i can to where that end piece is   and pull it through until i have  about four inches on the opposite side   so now i have this short  piece and this short piece   and i'm going to swing this one around to the back  and i'm going to tie these two together in a knot give it a good tug both times that you knot it okay so now i have my long piece oops sorry so  now i have my long piece on the front my two   shorter pieces on the back and i'm  going to cut them to be the same length i got mine pretty short this time try not to do  that because it's kind of difficult when you're   trying to hide the needle so let me just tell  you why it's helpful to have a second needle so   i can keep this needle on the long piece that i  just threaded through and i don't have to un um   i don't have to unthread it i can just take my  second needle and put it on here and then use   it to hide the thread and then and then i i keep  my extra needles in just a little piece of fabric   and then i never have to unthread this this piece  here so it's me being lazy but if you happen to   have two needles it's convenient so remember now  you've made this knot on the back and so i'm going   to tuck the thread in just behind the needle and  i'm going to run it inside the coil just to hide   it so i'm just going to run it a little bit i mean  my pliers it gets really tough on these things   okay so let me just kind of show you so it  went in here and it's coming out over here and this is why needles needle nose pliers  can be helpful getting into these tight spots so i pull that through now i can take this needle  off get my scissors and i just cut down as close   as possible without cutting one of the stitches  so i just cut that off and as you move the basket   around that little end piece that you can see will  end up kind of slipping back inside the needles   and you won't see it so now i've got my long piece  on there and i can keep going so i'm going to make   a really tiny basket so i can finish this for you  and show it to you so i'm just going to go ahead   and make my base just a little bit bigger all  right so i'm going to start for this is a really   tiny basket but i'm going to start shaping it so  beyond this base and all you have to do for that   is each time you're going to make a stitch you do  the same thing the stitches are exactly the same   move your gauge over a little you just lift it  i've got a piece sticking out here so you just   lift the edge a little bit so it's just a sits a  little bit higher and then wrap your stitch around   my needles are getting stuck and then you  just make your stitch like you normally would but that piece is just slightly  lifted you'll be able to see it   here in just a second so i'm going to take  my finger and just push it up a little bit and then keep making my stitches as i normally would so now see how  see how this is i'm not holding it   see how it's starting to lift up it's just  because i lifted it before i put in a stitch and then i keep doing that the same like i'll  lift it up and then i want to keep it for one full   round i want to keep it at that same um how do i  say that same elevation same level of liftedness and once i get where i've got the first coil all  the way around that's lifted then i can decide   do i want to angle it out this way do i want to  pull the sides up drastically so let me show you   like on this one i lifted it and i kept going  straight up with it so the sides went straight   up on this one i kind of went out and up see how i  kind of gradually went out and up on this one this   one has some this one kind of goes down on the  sides so um so on this one i went out a little bit   and then went up more on these sides so you  can actually see that see how there's kind of   a sloped shape there and it's all about how you  lift the coil as you're placing the stitches all   right so i've gone all the way around lifting  that edge so you can see how that's coming up   and so then now i i could lift it even higher and  go on top of that so that the sides go straight up   or i could just gently lift it so that the  sides fan out a little bit um you can even go   like let's say you wanted to go out and then  come back in kind of rounded and smaller and   then go back out again you can do that by just  how you lift the the bundle whether you um   you know pull it like you could just pull it in  tighter and make the the rim come in a little bit   but you have a lot of decisions to make about how  you want your basket formed and it really is just   about where you place the bundle before you place  the stitch okay so i have this teeny little thing   here but i'm gonna show you what to do when you're  gonna finish your basket so you can make it as big   as you want i have one the largest one i've made  is the size of a dinner plate so before i finish   this up i'm on the back there's pieces of pine  needle that are just sticking out all shaggy and   you can just gently run your finger along the back  to see where those places are so what you just   do is sometimes you can just break them off and  um but you can just take your scissors and snip   and it's best if you snip closer closest to  the last stitch without snipping that stitch   because then the shaggy end won't show as  much so any any place that you have a needle   sticking out um you just you can  kind of lift it up and snip it off if your basket has uh dried by the time you  finish it then you can um you can kind of just   bend it with your fingernail and break it off so  one thing to let you know there when your basket   dries because you know you're working with wet  needles and when your basket dries it will shrink   and so your stitches will get a little bit loose  it's just what happens so you want to stitch as   tightly as you can but it is going to loosen up a  bit unless you treat your needles there's a way of   treating them with a vegetable glycerin solution  and i am going to be doing a video about how to   treat your your needles with vegetable glycerin  if you decide to do that um it does keep the the   needles more pliable um it doesn't they don't  it doesn't shrink as much and it also keeps a   darker color on the needles and it has a slight  shine to the needles not a strong one just just a   slight shine instead of a dull finish and so if i  have made that video by the time you see this one   it will be in the space below um otherwise keep be  on the lookout for it and i will um i'll have that   if you're interested in seeing how to do that  so okay so i just trimmed up the shaggy needles   now there are a couple ways you can finish it one  is to just stop adding needles just stop adding   them and keep making stitches until you get to  the end and then when you get to a place where   not to the very last one but where your bundle  really starts to thin out then you can just   take your scissors cut at an angle and then just  kind of stitch a couple times in the same place   and then um to sort of make a kind of make a a  knot and then like we did with hiding the thread   when we were adding a new piece of thread you  just run the needle in into the bundle of the   basket and kind of run it through to hide it and  pull it out and then snip it off so i'll show you   on this basket right here do you see that if  you notice here the coil starts to get a little   thinner and a little thinner but then at this  point i cut it off and then i wrapped the needle   around i stitched it around a couple times in the  same place and then i ran it through this coil   and then out one side of it and cut it  off i can't even see where i did that   because it's not very noticeable um so that's  how that's one way you can finish it another   is to put a solid rim on it and so i'm going to  demonstrate this for you so if you want to make so   a solid edge on it what you do  is um instead of making a stitch   you're going to kind of use your stitches my  gauge is a little loose here so i'm going to   when you're doing this kind where you're making a   a rim that's coiled with uh or wrapped with  thread you're going to keep adding needles   till almost all the way to the end so okay  so now what i'm going to do is instead of   sticking my needle in to make the stitch i'm  going to start here and i'm just going to wrap around so i'm just gonna wrap just like we  did at the beginning with the coil wrap and i'm gonna wrap all the way over until i get to where i would put in this stitch and then so see how i've got  that then i'm going to make that   stitch in the regular place  where i would have normally oops this little tiny basket makes it hard  to work with okay so now i've got that   and then i'm just gonna go again i'm  gonna go around and around and around   and around and around until i get to  where i would have put in that stitch and and then i secure it with the  stitch so i just keep doing that   all the way around until i get back to here and  then kind of the same way with the other finish   when you start getting closer to the end  you can let it thin out just a little bit   and then you're going to cut off let me show you  how this looks um right here this one i wrapped   i would wrap for once um you know the space of  one stitch and then i would cross over and leave a   little bit of a space and then i do it again here  but see this ending right here so i get to the   end of it and then i just cut you know a slanted  line and then i just did that same ending where i   went around a couple of times with some stitches  and then hide the end inside the coil and that   is it well that is it i hope you guys enjoyed  this video if you have any questions feel free to   comment in the space below or you can send  me an email at my flagstaff home at gmail.com   and and i will answer you as best i can with  this um be sure if you're going to return to this   video to check at the beginning the different time  stamps for where you can find the different parts   of making a basket and i hope you have  fun making all of your own designs i   hope i'll see you again on my flagstaff home for  everything home related take care you guys bye-bye

Channel: My Flagstaff Home

Views: 184,032

Keywords: pine needle basket making, how to make a pine needle basket, step by step instructions for making a pine needle basket, making pine needle baskets, pine needle basket making for beginners, pine needle basket making classes, Making a basket from pine needlees, making a basket from pine needles start to finish

Id: srHu7glBWGU

Length: 59min 14sec (3554 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021