A Friendship Tree to Make Together

In Calgary, I am a member of the Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts, and it was incredibly apparent how much everyone missed their fiber art friends when women began meeting outside during the pandemic. As soon as outdoor gatherings were permitted, members brought lawn chairs, blankets, thermoses of coffee, and their projects to gather (socially distanced) once again despite cool weather. It is amazing the lengths to which we will go to spend time together with our maker friends. It is often less about the project itself (I myself am not particularly productive at guild gatherings) but more about the camaraderie.

My friend Rebecca Martin, of StoryTeller Wool, and I developed a friendship online when we both discovered our love of punch needle, and then found we had other similarities in our story, such as looking for ways to express ourselves creatively amidst the all-consuming chaos that is motherhood. We have never met in person, and yet we reach out to each other for advice, to share our lives, and see what we are creating now. So often we laugh at one another when we discover that we are both exploring the same motif, or incorporating the same fiber technique in our work, even though we had never discussed it with each other before.

Other friends might not be of this “birds of a feather” variety, yet they bring balance to my life. They are the brights to my neutrals, and the energetic abstracts to my folksy motifs. I am the quiet listener, and they are the warmth that brings me, stretching, out of my shell. 

As much of my work is inspired by my German-Canadian Mennonite heritage and Pennsylvania Dutch motifs, it is no surprise that this year’s design became a twist on a Tree of Life pattern. The branches symbolize different branches of our friendships, with the circles being the bounty we reap from them. And of course, no Friendship Tree would be complete without two birds flocking together, perhaps a mirror image, or perhaps balancing one another out.

I punched this 8" x 8" pattern with the #10 Regular Oxford Punch Needle (¼ inch loops) and hand-dyed 4-ply rug wool in complementary colors. I wanted the design to be simple enough for beginners with room for more experienced punch needle rug hookers to incorporate their own techniques.

• Make it scrappy: This pattern is perfect for busting your stash and using up smaller bits of yarn, including novelty yarns. 
• Flip the foreground for the background: Punch the foreground (tree, birds, and circles) all one color,  and then use multiple colors to create the background. You could switch colors while punching the background concentrically, punch it in rows, or create more organic shapes. Have fun with it!
• Reverse it: If you prefer the look of the back, flat stitches, go ahead and showcase that side of your mat instead.
• Incorporate other fiber techniques: Instead of punching the circles at the end of each branch, try making quillies, or stitching wool pennies for a fun twist.
• Swap with a friend: Have a friend punch part of your pattern and you punch part of theirs. Each person chooses the colors, yarns, punch needle sizes, techniques, and so on of their choice. Then swap! Finish punching the rest of the pattern, and then do a final exchange of your finished friendship mats.