Making Friday: Punch needle with Crafters Box

Much earlier this year, I had an email from Morgan at The Crafters Box, asking for my postal address. This US-based company, whose aim is to make it easy for people to bring crafting back into peoples’ lives by providing subscriber-based mail-order kits and online instructional videos around particular crafts. What a great idea!

The Feb project was to be an Amy Oxford Punch Needle workshop, with their featured maker my old online friend Arounna of Bookhou, and they wanted to send me a Punch Needle kit to try out, too. Rather sadly, the postal service let me down, and Arounna’s workshop was loooong done by the time the kit arrived, so although I got punch needling away (I was SO keen to try it out), I’ve been waiting until now to share what I made with my Crafters Box Punch Needle kit, because this week, they’ll be opening the online workshop up to everyone! Find out more here.

I decided to make a simple image of a studio chair that I often sketch…

… and drew a version on my canvas, and started with my first punch needle piece, using the beautiful italian yarn that had come in the kit.

The way it works is that that wool runs through the handle and out the front, and then, as you plunge the needle through the cloth and bring it back, it leaves a loop of yarn on the other side. This technique is also known as rug hooking, but with this kind of punch needle, the process is remarkably quick – almost like colouring in with yarn!

And there it is! my completed punch needle piece, entitled “Lonely Chair”.

 

I’m looking out for the loose-weave fabric that Crafters Box calls “monkscloth” so that I can start another, because really, it is such a satisfyingly quick craft project to tackle, and the action of punching through the cloth is quite addictive.

Want to know more? Check out The Crafters Box, as well as Arounna’s instagram, for more punch needle inspiration!