And so a cold sunny Wednesday saw me head to the MK41 district to my fifth of six World of Bushcraft workshops, this one being net making with senior bushcraft instructor Adam Logan. After a brew he showed me some previously made nets for catching both fish and fur and did a little legality talk. As we were outside the brews Adam made probably kept us alive as there was a real nip in the air.
We then started on making the top two rows from which the net forms. I'm normally pretty on the ball with knots (see here, here, here, here and here as examples) so the fact that I couldn't quite suss out net making did frustrate me as the knot is a sheet bend which I am familiar with albeit tied in a different way for a net.
So as I started to make the top part of my net my banana fingers did initially let me down but I got there in the end. I said to Adam that I didn't mind too much if I the workshop net wasn't a pretty boy example because I was just as interested in getting the techniques sorted and a bit of practice in.
LHS picture credit:Adam Logan
Once the top part was sorted to the correct length I threaded a line through the top loops to tie up, and the row to which the needle was still attached was at the bottom ready to be added to.
And this is the start of the net threaded up tightly between two points so that I could work on it with an over, under through, clockwise turn, under, through and pull.
Picture credit: Adam Logan
It is quite literally like knitting and you just rinse and repeat for the vast majority of the time. I also learnt how to expand and shrink down rows and add new cordage in (this was linen by the way) and I reached a suitable finishing point with the odd minor hitch (no pun intended) along the way. Despite the fact that it was cold and the repetitive nature of net making I found that the time just flew by and it's with thanks to Adam that I got the net making monkey off my back.
The other recent World of Bushcraft workshops I've attended to date are:-
I've also done a 1-2-1 Bow Drill Session with Jason Ingamells to review my technique
No comments:
Post a Comment