Feathersticks and a flame this time as I was in a rush and everything was soaked.
With things looking a little more cosy I went over to the Hazel trees and found a good round section of straight green timber suitable for carving a netting needle, gauge, and making a baton for the splitting.
Then onto making the kit needed for the job. I bought some linen thread along and set to carving the needle and gauge. I wont go into the detail too much as its all been done by many folks before. Check out purse net making videos on you tube, and written guides such as on Jonathon Ridgeons bushcraft site.
Once the needle was made, a quick cup of tea, and load up some cordage ready to get going.
Time was nearly up and Hurricane Gertrude or what ever daft name it was called was getting a good blow on, so I practiced the sheet bent knot and made a series of loops called a chain.
Then to continue the trend of tying knots in the wind (often as tricky as other tea related activities ;)) I finished off a smallish net of around one meter square last night.
Its quite an enjoyable repetitive job once you get the hang of it. I think this net will be fine for covering a rabbit hole, or as part of demonstrating a spring live capture trap. Next time I'll make a larger net with the smallest gauge I can for a primitive fishing lesson aid.
