You can weave pine straw into baskets.
Pine needles are a traditional material in native American baskets and other crafts. They can be coiled and woven to create useful and decorative items, from bowls to baskets to bags. The pine needles you use for weaving should be from long-needled pines, such as the Ponderosa pine, with needles ranging from 10 to 12 inches long, according to the Northwest Basketweavers. Purchase needles from craft suppliers or gather pine straw that has fallen to the ground. If you have gathered needles, soak them briefly in a solution of water, laundry detergent and a small amount of bleach to eliminate any mold.
Instructions
1. Soak the needles in warm water for about 30 minutes until they are pliable enough to bend into a circle without breaking. Make a bundle of five or six pine needles and remove the sheathes (the ends that were attached to the tree) by scraping them off with your fingernail or a butter knife.
2. Thread a tapestry needle with a length of raffia. Create a loop at the sheath end of the first bundle of pine needles. Secure the top of the loop by wrapping the raffia over and through the top of the loop several times and pulling it tight. Sew back through the last raffia loop, pull the stitch tight, then begin wrapping all the way around the loop itself, leaving the long tail of the needle bundle sticking out to one side.
3. Hold the top of the loop and pull the tail when you have wrapped all the way around the loop and are back at the top. Pull until the loop is almost closed. Make sure the tail with the length of the needles is on the right. Trim off any of the short ends from the sheath end of the needles and wrap more raffia to cover any exposed needle ends.
4. Put your needle through the first wrap you made on the loop and pull the tail of the needle bundle down around the edge of the raffia-wrapped core. Pull your needle through the core, wrap it up and over the the needle bundle, skip a wrap stitch and bring it back through the next wrap stitch down. Continue wrapping the bundle around the core, skipping a stitch and stitching into next stitch on the row below until half the length of your needle bundle is left.
5. Remove the sheaths from the next bundle of needles. Insert them (sheath-end first) into the center of your working bundle, so their ends are under the last stitch made. Continue coiling, wrapping and stitching--adding new needle bundles as needed--until the base of the basket is as large as you like.
6. Wrap the next section of the bundle so it is on top of the outer ring of the pine-needle coil. Push the needle through the edge of the outer ring of the coil, going toward its center, loop over the top of the new needles you are adding and then go back into the previous layer, one stitch over. The new needles should be pulled down onto the base.
7. Coil the bundle around the outer edge of the base stitching around the new layer of needles and back into the previous layer, adding new needle bundles and raffia as necessary until you reach your desired height. According to the Northwest Basketweavers, the angle at which you sew back into the basket will determine the shape of your basket's sides--straight into the basket for an upright shape, angle up from the bottom to the top for an outward slanting edge, angle in from the top to the bottom for sides that lean in, and combine all three across a number of layers for a traditional bowl that curves out, then in.
8. Add half as many needles in the last bundle you add. Mother Earth News online recommends tapering down to one or two needles as you reach your final stitch in your coil for a neat finish. At your last stitch, reverse direction and go back over the stitch to make an "X." Run your needle back into your work and carefully weave the end of the raffia around the stitch and bury it in a coil to finish.
9. Trim off any excess raffia from joins in the basket.
