Please Ignore the Mahogany Stained Lady....

OK....I am spotted in the usual stain that I seem to collect when I do half timber houses....Therefore, I won't bore you with photos of sticks and stain.

I will, instead, continue with the twining that I was doing yesterday.

And I will also rewrite this whole post.  Blogger seems to have lost it for me!

Now if I could just remember what I wrote thirty minutes ago.....

I am pretty much finished with the hemp basket that I started day before yesterday.  I will use that with the diagram to show you how I did it.

I started with 16 pieces of hemp about 7" long.  I divided them into groups of four and laid them out in a cross like the diagram on the left. 

If you ever did square braid lanyards when you were a kid, this part is a snap.  Each group is overlapped by another group...I cheat and glue the pieces together with white glue, being careful not to let it show on the inside or out.

If you are using one color at the start, simply cut a piece of embroidery floss and fold it in the middle.  Your first row will be over four threads.  I put a loop around the top left group in the diagram and bring both threads to the front, between the groups.  I then take the thread that lays on the front of the first group and thread it behind the second group.  Next, I take the thread that is in front of that group and pull it behind the next group of four.  Keep alternating the two threads until you get to the corner where you started...

Next row do the same thing, but around just two threads at a time.  The third row and all the rest go around just one cord at a time.  You want to keep the threads pretty tight around the cord all the time. Once in a while give the two threads a gentle tug.  You will find that, after the third row, the sides will be pulling up into a bowl shape.

You can see the rows clearly on the rainbow basket that I started yesterday.  Row one is the blue.  Row two is the pink and green. Row three is the solid yellow.  Yes.  That is all one six strand piece of over dyed floss.  It actually looks like a rainbow fell on the thread.

This is a "just for fun" basket.  I kind of like the little sparkles of silver showing through here and there.

If you want a vertical stripe in the basket sides, start with two colors and glue them inside of the basket.  Do the twining the same way that you did the one color.  It will automatically turn into stripes.  Very cool.

I will wait til tomorrow to finish the tops of the baskets.

I hear someone hissing, "Get back to the staining.  Stop being a basket case!"

I'm not sure why Tessie is in such a snit.

She wants me in two places at once.  See the basket that she's holding? 

My friend Joan found these seed pods under a tree where she works.  She gave me a few to experiment with.

I sawed and drilled the one that Tessie is holding yesterday before the meeting. 

Surprisingly, they are quite hard and just as thick as the real Tennesee Spinner mini gourds that we have been using.  They are about half the size though.

They seem to take the stain about the same. 

We have no idea what kind of tree is producing them, but they are great for mini gourd baskets.

I guess that I should get back to staining timbers.  Maybe I can sneak a few of the seed pods in at the same time....

See you tomorrow.