Came across this video of a young lady who makes baskets from pine needles.
Looks like an interesting process and thought folks might appreciate it
Looks like an interesting process and thought folks might appreciate it
Pine Needle Basketry
- Thread starter Mesquite
- Start date
Excellent. Not something self-evident from specimens in museum collections.
Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa pine) has the best needles, from 12 - 25 cm in length.
Pinus ponderosa (Ponderosa pine) has the best needles, from 12 - 25 cm in length.
Longleaf Yellow Pine (pinus palistris) has needles 20-45 cm.
Damn tree book cuts off very southern species. I'll add that note.
I have seen pine needle baskets but don't recall there being so much thread work.
I have seen pine needle baskets but don't recall there being so much thread work.
I remember seeing the idea in a Bushcraft book but that’s the first video I’ve seen. Looks like a lovely end product.
I just came across this video and went to start a thread on it. It’s great, I quite fancy having a go at this myself.
Nice stuff, it would be a great activity at the Moot, although I can't imagine that the needles there are going to be long enough... 
You can use them from about 2" upwards, but you need to 'tube' them to do it.
A hollow bone of the right diameter, a bit over a cm in the centre, and you pack the needle bunches in end on (best if you keep them all facing the one direction) and you stitch them tightly as they come out to the previously made rounds.
Starting isn't so simple as it is with long needles though, but you just whip stitch a bunch and coil it round. The centre ends up being thread wrapped.
If you have really good fine long nettle strands they work well for this, but I made a tea plate sized platter doing this with willow bark and two inch pine needles. It lasted very well indeed.
Patience, and just to prove that it could be done
A hollow bone of the right diameter, a bit over a cm in the centre, and you pack the needle bunches in end on (best if you keep them all facing the one direction) and you stitch them tightly as they come out to the previously made rounds.
Starting isn't so simple as it is with long needles though, but you just whip stitch a bunch and coil it round. The centre ends up being thread wrapped.
If you have really good fine long nettle strands they work well for this, but I made a tea plate sized platter doing this with willow bark and two inch pine needles. It lasted very well indeed.
Patience, and just to prove that it could be done
If you can get hold of roots (birch, pine or spruce), they can be made into baskets using a very similar technique. Windthrows are great for sourcing roots (stay safe etc).
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