Time to start foraging for the weaving and cordage plants.

[Toddy]

Remember this ?

Well, it's that time of year again.
Time to be aware of what's growing, where, how it's looking for use, and maybe giving serious thought to cropping and stooking and drying.

The flag iris is already withering it's outer leaves, and those make a beautiful soft handle rope. Strong and light and excellent for basketry.

The nettles are about as tall as they're going to get, and there's still enough light and warmth in the days to dry them off well.

Flax too is pulled and stooked, as are the rushes and the hops. Briars and brambles, honeysuckle and clematis are all long and whippy still, and worth taking, stripping and coiling. Dockens are worth pulling and cleaning up into stems for weaving later (mind they'll need soaked before any bending then).

The cattails can be taken now too, though commercially reeds and rushes are cut earlier in the year. Long grasses cut by the scythe are excellent for twisting into grass ropes just now. They're not as 'juicy' as they are in Summer, but that helps them dry out more easily and not go down with grey mould.

Thistle down is a rich harvest for firelighting just now, as is the mugwort and the cattail heads.

I can't be the only one who eyes up the world around me thinking that it's full of potential….what are you finding and using ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[bushwacker bob]

I'm happy to make string, that basket is gorgeous.

 

[sunndog]

Aye, i quite enjoy making string, but that basket is another level entirely. Well done

As for gathering, rebuilding me stocks of thisle down is about all just lately

 

[David LaFerney]

Iris is our state flower and very common - Blackberry brambles are ubiquitous. I had no idea that either was useful as cordage or fiber.

 

[Goatboy]

Nice pictures and info Toddy. Not been making cordage yet but last week I was getting a heap of thistle down for tinder which I posted up.
Really need to learn to weave baskets. Looks a great way to pass some time.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[cranmere]

The yellow irisis in my pond have done well this year. And I've been saving the leaves from corn cobs which are nice for twined baskets.

 

[redneck]

Don't suppose there's a tutorial on flag iris leaves baskets?

 

[boatman]

Only made a basket once and admire those who do. Cordage is one of the essentials for life, something our visitors like to have demonstrated and to try for themselves. Hopefully we have converted several people to using nettle fibre plant ties instead of plastic ones. Free, just rot away and kinder to plant stems, simple choice.

 

[boatman]

Have a long term experiment going of planks sewn together with bramble fibres. Untreated,they were just stripped of thorns and twisted through edge holes in planks.Hold them together well and would be waterproof if sealed with moss, resin, wax or fat in various combinations.

Easy joining means that small planked boats would have been a viable option to the assumed ubiquitous skin boats and dugouts of prehistoric Britain. Assuming a supply of, say, alder trunks, splitting out and dressing planks from them would be relatively simple with stone or later metal tools.