Making a Coiled Yarn Bowl with Mixed Materials

Dear Mindful Maker,

If you’re anything like me you have an abundant stash of creative items. And the fact that you’re here exploring and seeking some creative inspiration tells me that you are, in fact, like me. So let’s put some of those stash items to work. 

This project is number 2 in my coiled yarn bowl series. If you’ve made a coiled yarn bowl then you know how easily addicting they are. The coiled yarn bowls are not overly complicated but still look a bit intricate and all around beautiful. AND they are useful – what I like to call functional art. Creative with purpose. Often the term ‘functional’ is paired with pottery projects but the sentiment still applies here. 

You can take a look at my first installment of the Coiled Yarn Bowl here. In that post you will see how to make a basic coiled yarn bowl, no added elements or layers.

This Coiled Yarn Bowl project combines carving, printing, leather, raffia, and yarn. (Just typing that out has my heart fluttering!💖)

To begin I needed a sturdy base for the bowl. Here’s where my stash first came into play. 

My initial thought was to go get some thin wood rounds. Easy enough. But as I thought about it a bit a longer I remembered my leather stash. 

Over the years I’ve worked on several leather projects, some that included vegetable tanned leather. Veg Tanned Leather tends to be thick and firm which makes it perfect for my base. 

Happy to be using a piece of my beloved stash I moved on to the next step of planning my print. 

Carving and printing is one of my favorite creative activities. And the carvings can be used for multiple projects if so inclined- although, I’m always up for carving a new block.

I can’t get enough of plant life so naturally that’s where my mind went when envisioning the design. This block was inspired by a plant I saw this past winter at the conservatory in my area. It’s called a “ferocious blue cycad” or Encephalartos horridus. It’s a very striking blue green with sharp spikey spines and it immediately caught my eye. 

After a nice peaceful carving session it was time to print. This particular material needs to be printed a few times before printing on the intended substrate in order to build up some residual ink. Even though I did a few practice prints, the print on the leather wasn’t completely opaque. I love it but keep that in mind if you try it out. You may want to add a few more practice prints to really build up that ink if you’re going for a highly saturated print. 

I allowed the ink to completely dry for about a week. I didn’t want to chance smearing the print when I began to work with it. 

The edges will get blurred a bit once the coiling begins so I didn’t spend too much time getting them completely perfect. 

Next I needed to punch holes in the leather evenly around the outer edge. I have had this hole punch tool for years and absolutely love it. I think it was made for leather working but I also use it for paper, board, fabric. It’s all around helpful. I’ll link it on the Resources, Tools, & Supplies page under “Tools that are always handy” if you’re interested. 

Now I was ready to begin my coiling. I picked some yarn from my stash (yay for my stash!) and grabbed some jute cord. 

The yarn is a worsted weight acrylic blend yarn. I’m not sure the exact yarn since it was already in a ball with no wrapping but it’s not super fuzzy and it’s heavy enough to produce solid coverage of the jute. 

The jute is a medium size cord. You will have some fibers come through as you work with jute. If you don’t want the subtle addition of the rustic fibers I would suggest a medium to large size macramé cord. 

Getting started was a bit tricky but once I was past that initial phase it was smooth sailing.

Here’s the breakdown of how I started the coiling in this coiled yarn bowl:

• Cut a length a yarn (about 3 feet or what is manageable) and thread the yarn needle
• Lay the cord along the edge of the leather center piece with the cord coming from the left
• Hang on to the end of the yarn with the jute and leather in your left hand
• Wrap yarn around and into a hole in the leather 2 times leaving a 1-2 inch jute tail
• Wrap the working yarn around the jute and yarn tail as many times as you need to reach the next hole (I was at 5 or 6 wraps between holes)
• Create an anchor stitch by wrapping 2 times into the hole
• Move in that manor around the leather

Note: In the video I worked the first round coming up through the back. Not sure why, as it feels more natural for me to wrap in the opposite direction. If you watch the video you will see that I return to wrapping counter clockwise when I add the next length of yarn. Either direction will work for this project. 

• When I get close to the beginning of the cord I trim the cord at an angle leaving about a half inch or so
• When my wrapping reaches that jute end I include that into the wrap making sure to keep it tight and as close to the leather as possible
• Any issues with the jute cord escaping the wrap should be kept to the back of the bowl and can be trimmed back if needed. 
  

Then I continue on to the next round creating anchor stitches at the center point between the previous row’s anchor stitches. At this point I stopped counting and focused on making sure the anchor stitches landed at the center point even if sometimes it took 5, 6, or 7 wraps to get there. 

I continued working that way about 10 times around. Don’t forget that since the coiled circle is growing, the number of wraps between anchor stitches will grow too. 

Once I had the bottom the size I wanted – and that the amount of yarn I had would allow – I started to build the sides. The shape I chose here was a slightly flared shape versus making the sides rise at 90 degrees vertically. 

Because I was using leftover yarn from my stash I had to be mindful of how much yarn I had left. I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough if I continued the solid pattern so I added in 3 rows of a variation in the pattern. Here’s how I did that:

Starting at the beginning of a new row at the first anchor wrap. Instead of wrapping twice, wrap loosely one time then bring the needle between the working row and the row below. You will then wrap the yarn twice around that initial anchor stitch. This will create some distance between the previous row and the current working row. 

Follow the new pattern at every point where you have been working a simple anchor stitch. Make sure to keep the tension loose enough to comfortably add the horizontal wraps but tight enough that things aren’t floppy. 

I worked 5 more rows with the vertical anchor stitches. My decision to stop there was based on the amount of yarn I had left and the fact that I didn’t want this bowl to be too deep. The shallow depth allows the leather center to be easily visible. 

To finish this version of the coiled yarn bowl I decided to bring in some raffia ribbon. The color was close to the vegetable tanned leather and it added a different texture plus I simply love the added organic element against the structured pattern of the yarn. (Find the raffia ribbon on the Resources, Tools, & Supplies page under “Project Supplies”!)

I went around one time with the raffia ribbon making the anchor stitches a little closer together and making sure to keep them evenly spaced. Since the thickness of the raffia isn’t completely uniform I didn’t count the wraps between the anchor stitches but just visually weighed them out.

To end the piece I cut the jute leaving a tail. Then I continued wrapping the jute with the raffia and created a loop. I trimmed the jute at an angle to blend it back into the edge row and then wrapped both the jute and the edge row together. I made a knot with the raffia and trimmed off the raffia then tucked the knot in between the rows.  You can also glue it in if it doesn’t feel secure enough. 

There was one more little thing I wanted to do. Since the raffia was a touch lighter than the leather, I mixed up some acrylic paints and some matte gel medium and brushed a little bit around the raffia row. It was subtle but helped to make the leather and raffia connect even more. 

There are just so many ways you can go with these bowls. My brain had been working out the plan for my next one so stay tuned for that! 

I hope you enjoyed this project! Sign up for my monthly newsletter and subscribe to my Youtube channel (@jonesinthemaking) for more ideas, process videos, and tutorials!