Nettle Cordage

 The week after attending the Nettle Fibre workshop I set out into the woods behind our house to forage myself some nettles.  I got a good haul and while most are currenly sitting outside for the dew retting process, four lengths got processed straight away, the stems split and the woody inners removed.

The next day I then worked through my ribbens, removing woody bits I'd missed and cutting off extra bits which would get in the way.  This gave my a much more refined material than the one we used at the workshop.

I then started twisting the pieces together to create cordage.  This is like string and what our ancesters would have made from natural fibres years ago.  

Over the course of several weeks I twisted all my fibres together to give me a cordage somewhere in the region of 5.5 meters in lenght!

I have an idea of what I want to use it for, but it's a project which will take some time.  Step one complete.  I'm hoping there will be enough for a couple of different ideas.  Watch this space.