A Relaxing Job To Try This Summer

I was relaxing yesterday afternoon, after a morning in the garden, I decided to take some of the nettles I harvested and dried and make some rustic twine. I have spoken before about how useful nettles can be, and how I use nettles from my garden to make a rustic twine for the garden, and for craft projects. It could be a relaxing job for anyone to try this summer.

Nettles can be processed to make much finer fabrics and yarns. In the image above you can see some finer string, some thread, and some isolated fibres, which give in idea of the versatility of this material.

But I keep things simple, and the rustic twine I make can be very useful – and fun for a range of different projects. Winding the simply two ply twine is easy, and if you pick and peel nettles this month, you can set the ribbons aside to dry and use them when you have the time.

Today, I thought I’d share some simply ways to use a homemade nettle twine, since you can use it to avoid consumption and make some very useful, sustainable things for your home and garden:

• Use twine to tie plants to supports throughout your garden.

• Create a macrame-style hanging planter.

• Make a net produce bag to use when harvesting or shopping.

• Make a woven basket with dried grass stems and nettle twine.

• Or just use the nettle twine as general purpose cordage when out and about enjoying the natural world.

Learning how to use natural resources from the world around us is a great step towards living in a more self-reliant and sustainable way.

Yesterday, I made around 4m of relatively thick twine over a couple of hours or so. I’m not doing anything with it just yet – we’re back on the barn conversion project today. But I may share details of further projects later in the year. In the meantime, I urge everyone to collect some nettles so you can give it a go.