Weaving a foraging bag out of nettles?

[duncang]

Evening all,

Not sure any of you watched Ray Mears on TV thursday about looking at what british hunter gathers generations and generations ago used to forage for, but there was one bit that I was very interested in..
They were looking at aborigenes and how they made most of their tools "on the road" rather than carry everything with them. What I am basically getting at is if anybody has ever had a go at weaving their own baskets to use in gathering and foraging. Its suggesting in plenty of places on the net that nettles can be used, which would be very interesting given that they are available in a real abundance. Question is, how to prepare them before weaving them.

Any ideas?

[Shirley]

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/n/nettle03.html

In the sixteenth and seventeenth century Nettle fibres were still used in Scotland for weaving the coarser household napery. The historian Westmacott says: 'Scotch cloth is only the housewifery of the nettle. In Friesland, also, it was used till a late period.' The poet, Campbell, complaining of the little attention paid to the Nettle in England, tells us:
'In Scotland, I have eaten nettles, I have slept in nettle sheets, and I have dined off a nettle tablecloth. The young and tender nettle is an excellent potherb. The stalks of the old nettle are as good as flax for making cloth. I have heard my mother say that she thought nettle cloth more durable than any other species of linen.'
After the Nettles had been cut, dried and steeped, the fibre was separated with instruments similar to those used in dressing flax or hemp, and then spun into yarn, used in manufacturing every sort of cloth, cordage, etc., usually made from flax or hemp. Green (Universal Herbal, 1832) says this yarn was particularly useful for making twine for fishing nets, the fibre of the Nettle being stronger than those of flax and not so harsh as those of hemps.

Sounds interesting!! Make beer with the tips and cloth with the rest of it :D

[Jack]

Gidday

Bloody nettles. They are such a bloody weed down here. They are all over my paddock and the sheep don't eat em so now you have gotten me real interested.

Anyone got a recipe for nettle beer. After a few of those I might start looking at usin the rest of em.

[Hedgehogpie]

Nettle Beer: http://www.selfsufficientish.com/nettlebeer.htm

Now, as to the production of cordage from nettles. I've made short lengths of nettle string using an simple technique of crushing the stems and peeling away the hard outer surface. It's a bit fiddly, but you get the hang of it fairly quickly. You'll be wanting to pick the tallest of the nettle stems - use gloves if you have some although it can be done bare handed if you pull them the right way (like our ancestors used to) I was shown how to do it, but it's not an easy thing to describe! Once you have several long fiberous strands of nettle, you can move on to trying to make the coradge itself & because I'm lazy (and someone else has already done it so why try to re-invent the wheel?) this is the link you want for that. http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/sh ... ostcount=1

This guy's only experimenting, but you can already see how it goes. What I will say is that cordage made from 'green' stock will dry and shrink after it's been twisted and that can make it loose, which is something to be aware of.

I've got a bunch of nettle stems 'retting' in a tub of water at the moment (retting is just a way of rotting off the outer layers, they used to do it with flax) as one of my experiments will be to see if it improves the fibers.

There are many plants that can be used for cordage and weaving, here's another webby to whet your appetite

http://www.grannysstore.com/Wilderness_ ... Making.htm

[Hedgehogpie]

Oh, and I've also made hedgerow baskets from wild clematis and hop, willow, hazel and dogwoods.

They looked like this:


Basket made from Hazel, willow, clematis, hop, vinca and possibly a few other found hedgerow products. Rather rough and ready (I haven't done basketry in a while), but it works well enough.


Cone basket made from wild clematis and hop bines.

[duncang]

Afternoon all,

Right, well went out for a walk, but no luck finding nettles... its typical really, when you don't want them, they are everywhere, and when you do, they're nowhere to be seen!
Anyway, cut some withies in the end, and without any clue of how it should be done, came up with this, which I am quite proud of!



and



I would still be interested to hear from anyone who have had a go, and what materials are best... found it a little hard, with a lot of my withies snapping, but got there in the end!

[Shirley]

They all look great - really inspired to get my willow sorted now.

Are you supposed to soak the withies to stop them from snapping??

Great first attempt I reckon!!!

[Hedgehogpie]

Yep, soak then drain and keep them wrapped in a damp towel whilst working. Should help keep them pliable.

This is a good book:How to Make Baskets from Countryside Materials
by Susie Vaughan
ISBN: 0855327553

[mattachinelee]

Hi, Thanks to local freecycle cafe, was able to get a great supply of hazel coppice poles yesterday morning, freshly cut at the cost of a blister or two. (Sadly had to cut to 2 metre lengths as only have saloon car to transport them with.) Got home and set to the grand plan for weaving into a composter and have ended up with too much blue air from verbalised frustration . Gave up and walked away before my neighbours complained. Lots of the thinner poles were snapping, many of the medium poles were too stiff to weave, even with laying the thick vertical poles on the ground with a 12 inch gap between them. Help!
If they need soaking, how do you soak 2 metre long poles? Will it be enough to leave them on the ground in my garden in the dew and rain for the next couple of days? Would it help to throw an old blanket over them and pour a couple of buckets of warm water on them?
My back up plan is to use some garden wire and put the poles right next to each other with the wire woven in and out to secure them. I think this will work, but it isn't quite the all green design I'd hoped for.
Any ideas?

[Hedgehogpie]

The damp blanket technique could work. For weaving Hurdles the rods are usually split down the middle but I suspect that attempting that right now would only result in more expletives and shocked neighbours not to mention the very strong possibility of you cutting yourself until you get the hang of it.

I'm trying to picture the shape of your proposed composter. Will it be round or square? If you're after a square shape, why not try making individual hurdles that you can fasten together? For that you can use a former to hold the poles while you work which might make it easier to manage. Have a look here: http://handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/ ... ction/3765

When I'm working stuff for the hedgerow baskets I gently 'break' the fibers inside the rod to get it more flexible by bending it lightly over my knee - that's for pencil thickness size stuff - maybe you could also try that with your soaked rods before you begin?

[red]

Yep, soak then drain and keep them wrapped in a damp towel whilst working. Should help keep them pliable.

This is a good book:How to Make Baskets from Countryside Materials
by Susie Vaughan
ISBN: 0855327553

I am a book-aholic and having some birthday money stashed - went straight to amazon to look for this book - its over 59 quid second hand think I shall see if I can order it from the library...

[Smooth Hound]

I would use it fresh if you find osier, thats in my opinion, purple osier for the finer bits, and hazel for big stuff, if you cut a few lengths of it, or even all of them with the owners consent in the winter months it will do it good and send up new shoots in no time, hazel takes longer , but grows lovely and straight.

[Hedgehogpie]

Yep, soak then drain and keep them wrapped in a damp towel whilst working. Should help keep them pliable.

This is a good book:How to Make Baskets from Countryside Materials
by Susie Vaughan
ISBN: 0855327553

I am a book-aholic and having some birthday money stashed - went straight to amazon to look for this book - its over 59 quid second hand think I shall see if I can order it from the library...

Whaaa??? Wow Red that's painful! I paid a coupla quid on Ebay. Definitely check it out at the library & see what you think then maybe keep an eye on Ebay. They do seem to pop up fairly often.

Did you want a living compost bin then mattachinelee? I figured it was just going to be a woven one...

[mattachinelee]

I had the brainwave of weaving hazel poles (slim ones) in and out of some stouter ones into a vaguely circular shape, hoping for a cylinder about 60 cm across and 1.5 m high, which I could use pokey out bits left over to stick into the ground so worms could get good access to help with the composting. My back up plan was the make four panels option. I hadn't thought really of making a living composter as I figured in order to get the compost out of this design, I'd have to lift the whole thing to take from the base. In some dark corner of my mind was possibly lurking the thought of putting some cat-flap type access into the bottom, but I couldn't admit openly to having a design quite that complicated when I can't even weave the poles at all! I can see that splitting the poles would help enormously, but agree that may be something to save for another time and after getting expert tuition!

The poles are currently laying on the grass in my garden with a goodly supply of rain and sleet laying on them. I figure this has the advantage of soaking the wood natures way and as its too cold for me to be outside working it gives me more time to find out what I should be at.

I've been put in touch with a county council bod who is involved in woodland management, thanks to the local freecycle cafe. He is offering to give me some advice for both hazel and on sourcing and using willow, which sounds alot easier. At this rate, if I can crack this, I shall have an entire garden full of woven things by the time the weather is good enough to sit in it!

[mattachinelee]

Hedhogpie - also wanted to say thank you - that web site showing the hurdle mould makes it alot clearer too!