Tights or stockings anyone ?
In the dim and distant past before I was single, my then better half and I were out on a trip and she got a pair out (unused
) which we experimented with.
No sniggering at the back there, yes, I’m talking to you!!!
We’re talking about hosiery here, before anyone does themselves a contortionists mischief trying this, but if you put one leg into the other and turn the resulting tube half way inside out, back on itself, you have a great multi-layer water filter.
A strip cut from one leg (talking hosiery again
) and tightly wound and twisted worked as a cord for a bowdrill.
We managed to make them into a fishing net with a hazel sapling fashioned into a hoop, allowing us to easily scoop out large numbers of minnows close to the bank.
Minnows, on their own, aren’t worth much - if you have a couple of handfuls of them though you have a great main meal or main ingredient for a chowder-like soup substance.
Misquito net – yes, you look like a reject from the school of bank robbers but, hey…
Sling and/or wound dressing binding for first aid.
Carry strap for heavy loads.
Stuff sack – works, sort of, but not on anything that puts up too much of a struggle.
They excelled as an eel trap, where offal from a rabbit carcass was put into the tights and they were turned back on themselves a couple of times. Weight them down in pretty much any stream, river, pond or lake and the eels will find the 'trap', chew their way in and often get stuck or snarled up enough to be able to pick them out.
If you can contrive of a way of including them into your ditch kit without raising too much suspicion regarding your baser motives
there’s quite a lot you can do with them.
Or so I heard…
Adapt - overcome - and try not to get slapped in the process when you're caught raiding your other half's undergarments...
