What sorts of of Australian plants work well for cordage? I'm interested in recreating Iron Age Celtic fibre technology, and I'd love to do some projects using locally available material, but I've got no idea where to start!

Leigh Quillan .... Hi Leigh... start with Lomandra or any native grasses ... 😀

Ps... use them freshly cut or dry them and rehydrate them when you’re ready to use ... wrap them in a wet towel

Hi, is there a good time to cut the grass/reed, i.e. when it's fully grown? 🙋

@@av6701 is there a particular lomandra which is best suited to this work. For example the lomandra with the narrower flat leaves. I have some lomandra longifolia in my garden as well as a lomandra with a much narrower flat leaf but the narrow leaf variety are still only very small whereas the longifolias are quite dense and well established.

Awesome!

Thank you that is helpful

Yes, Bilum bags/nets use similar techniques, often with a twist in the 'leg' of the loop. It's another very ancient method and there are some truly beautiful examples still being made.

Unlike crochet, nothing will unravel if you pull a loose end, but the way in which you estimate shaping is very similar. If you work it tightly it's stiffer than if you work it loosely.

You can definitely do it over bundled material, it feels more like a basketry technique at that point to me, I've done it over things like pine needles or nettle bast for example. Done tightly it will have as much rigidity as the material you use, tree bast stays pretty firm, flax usually has a certain flexibility even when densely packed.

I generally just taper off with some tighter stitches, but you could work over a firmer or fatter last row, add in handles, whatever works for you really!

It's as much about matching your stitch size to the side of the cordage used, for a dense finish, the stitches sit fairly close together so there aren't big gaps in between, and yes, pull them close, but remembering you'll need to get a needle back through on the next round. The core you can tighten every few inches if necessary, it mostly just sits there, and overtightening it will just distort your work. You'll get the hang of it quite fast, it's fairly intuitive once you start working. Hope it goes well for you!

You certainly can use bought cordage, just weave over ends as you go

There's nothing particularly to show, just take a few extra tight stitches and you are done!

@@SallyPointer thank you for responding. I've been interested in cordage and making things from nature for years and I like your channel. I'm just quite unfamiliar with how things are done. I enjoy learning new things.

@@SallyPointer I too am a bit confused on the finishing... In the nal binding video you said to loop over? Does one just add random cordage over the circumference of the project and loop over that as well as the outermost loops? Because I have no clue what happened in that video and came here to figure it out, but the core cordage is part of this project as opposed to no core cordage on the nal binding hat/basket. And I think that is what Javaman 92 means. Not to say I take for granted your generosity in sharing with the world things that took you years of schooling and trial and error to learn. You are amazing, Sally! 😅 I'm just a little confused is all...

@@googleyeyes5122 ok, on the simple looping hairnet, I added a round or two over a core to give a non stretchy edge, but when you are ready to stop there or here, you just do a couple of stitches tightly and close together, and it's good. You really don't need to do anything fancy to finish off, just a neat final stitch that won't unravel much.

@@SallyPointer Ahhh! Thanks!!

I usually double the stitches in round one, do 1 then 2 in round two, probably 1,1,2 in round three, then usually a plain round to see how it looks. There's no exact formula, but this approach works for most nalbound, looped or crochet structures.

@@SallyPointer Thank you! And Thank you for the great tutorial on getting the green nettle into little strips. I feel like my next cordage is going to be much more refined!

How did it go?

@@Just_Sara ​ @Just Sara Well... thank you for asking! My first effort was using a very rough version of nettle yarn so I'm trying to make slenderer fibers using the Prehistoric Nettle Textiles video from Sally P. I've got the fibers split and dried, I am wary of scraping because I don't want to lose any of the fiber, so I did some thigh rolling and got more of the bark and bits off that way, and now it's just hanging, waiting. I'm kind of curious to try the splicing method so I was watching those videos of Sally's and kind of getting the idea. I wasn't sure if I have to use saliva or if I can use water to join the ends. I love the historical basis for these methods and the scholarship that goes into her vids. The little sprang bag project looked cool too. I've never done that either. But it looks pretty prehistoric! :-) I'm assuming sprang is pretty ancient too, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Sustainable might be a good word for it too. :-)

You certainly can crochet with cordage, but it's not usually the most efficient use as it uses up rather more yardage than techniques such as looping. If you have plenty though no reason why not to.

If you find a hook useful, go for it. Horseradish makes excellent cordage,the very first video on this channel was a horseradish cordage one.

An oval is just a case of starting with a 'sausage' shaped base rather than a round one. Blanket stitch a folded section of core together about as long as your finger or hand depending on end size, and then go round spirally as before. It's pretty intuitive once you get started.

Thank you! I knew it wasn't quite right, will attempt to practice!

You'll need to lay in the new lengths and work over them for a few stitches when it's time to change yarn. I'll try and do a video showing this in the new year.

ah ok so overlap in the new length. I was trying to figure out how to splice the rope together but it looks a mess. I do love that tidiness about looping, add as you go. But I have a bunch of seagrass cordage someone gave me a that I wanted to use. Thank you.

Not quite, this is essentially just blanket stitch over a core, Danish stitch is often described as a variant on blanket stitch, but no core thread.

@@SallyPointeroh right ☺ what is bit of the work that is the core? I didn't really understand that but I may have been being sleepy!

@@laightnightknits4358 you just work the simple looping over an extra cord, that sits there as the core. It's really easy to do, grab some string and have a go!

Just take a few really tight stitches to lock everything down. It doesn't have to be any harder than that!

@@SallyPointer OK Thank you, sounds straight forward. I'll give it a go.

Ramie is in the nettle family, so tall and nettle like in appearance, I had to look up buttonweed as I don't think we have it in the UK, but it's something quite different by the look of it and is in the bedstraw family. Most bedstraws have fairly knobbly straw like stems when dried, so you'd need to experiment to see if they are strong enough to get fibres from.

@@SallyPointer awesome thanks! If I get a chance I will post a pic or vid of our button weed. A bird brought it in here to the homestead and I have propagated it in the hopes of unlocking its fibers.

I figured out that this species is Velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti I have a great stand of this plant this year so I am working on harvesting all the fibers and try to do it in the most beneficial process I can come up with. Instead of scraping that worked well, I am relying more on retting or fermenting off the outer layers of bark. The trick is figuring out how long to soak. Dear Lord the stink is horrid, but beats scrapping each and every fiber.

Have you asked in the Nalbinding group on Facebook? I'm sure I've seen discussions of it there, possibly Anne Marie Decker has done some work in it, but there are definitely articles out 'somewhere' that look at examples, will see if I can recall where but that may be your fastest way to find someone researching them.

@@SallyPointer Dear Sally, Thank you so much for the suggestion. I love your work and all your videos. Blessings

Think of the loop as looking like the petal of a flower, you generally go into the top of the petal if that makes sense?

@@SallyPointer I did do that but I found it tight and easier to go between the petals where there is a gap framed by the core cord

Not that sort of lime, Tilia x europea, also known as Linden. If you've ever had Linden blossom tea, it's that one. There are several varieties of Tilia, common lime, small leaved lime etc, but they aren't related to citrus trees.

@@SallyPointer thank you for this distinction.

Absolutely yes, that's the beauty of this method

@@SallyPointer oh fantastic. Thank You so much.

The big difference is there's nothing to unravel if you pull a loose end, so structurally half hitch knots rather than loops.

Crochet pulls loops through and will unravel if you pull the working end, this pulls whole lengths through and is essentially making knots. It does look passingly similar though