Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Cordage


I have put this post off, must be the gloomy, un-Spring like Ohio weather. I had a week off of work, that we did have a bit of a warmish spell. I was driving through the park and decided to stop, nothing was planned. I chose a favorite spot that is like a field up on a hill. I just wanted to look around at the plants, I didn't have any books to tell me what was what and hadn't planned on tackling the making of cordage.


I ended up sitting in the grass, with the sun shining down on me, with pices of reed grass (not sure if that's the correct name, but it's the wider grass). At first, I was going to roll the pieces then twist them around each other. What i found, was that by rolling these strands it broke them lengthwise, which gave me several strands from each piece of grass. I set aside one of the pieces and worked with just one of them, tearing them along the seam that was made by rolling. I tried to remember exactly how the books said to twist it. You are supposed to twist the strand almost like a string likes. Once that is done, you alternately twist one piece around the other. SO there I sat, lost in this impromtu cordage experiment. I ended up tying knots in both ends of the piece i ended up with. One knot was tied at the beginning to help hold the strands together(there were actually three strands). to jump back a bit, i twisted two strands, once that was done I twisted that piece with the third strand then tied the final knot.


Once we get a bit better weather I would like to make more with different kind of plants or inner bark, read up on how to splice a new piece in to continue for a long piece of cord. If I can get that far, i have looked at my knot books and think it would be nice to braid the cord and use a loop and button knot to make a bracelet. i won't stop there, cordage can be used for lashing in the future.


On a nother note, i wish i had a ran collection system in place already with the amount of rain we are getting. Everything in time, I keep telling myself i will get there and to be patient.


I Figured out how to cut my own hair with clippers, while I was off of work too. It was scary, but very empowering and helped me thumb my nose at vanity.

1 comment:

  1. My girlfriend Anne met a lady at the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering who sold her a drop spindle and taught her how to spin last weekend. She is spinning Husky fur now. It's soft as silk and supposedly ten times warmer than sheep's wool.

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