My failed nettle-along

Tags

crafts, fiber, fiber prep, nature, nettle-along, nettles, plants, yarn

The lack of interest last year allowed me to slack off on the subject, and the nettles I gathered are in fact still on the rafters in bundles. I partially blame blogging as a difficult forum for debates and sharing, as well as my lack of expertise obviously.

As luck would have it, I’m now off the hook – Motherowl invited me to a Facebook group a little while ago, created by Allan Brown who has considerably more experience in the matter as well as a lovely video describing his process. In a very short time thousands of people have enrolled from all over the world, quite a few Danes too! So the interest is clearly there and I look forward to learning more. (even though I detest FB)

Nettle harvest

Tags

country life, crafts, mad science, nature, nettle-along, nettles, plants, ramie, video, weaving

Welcome to the next installment in our nettle-along.

This is what I managed to harvest in July, and it’s time for the next batch. I saved some of the leaves instead of feeding them to the horses, because while I don’t have time for a separate study of how to use the stalks for paper making, I do want to try to make paper and thought, why not add the dry leaves to my mixed materials bin? I’m drying my stalks inside because of the wet weather, I don’t know it that’s really necessary, but I didn’t want them to mold.

Nettles in July

Tags

crafts, nature, nettle-along, nettles, plants

Welcome to the next installment in our nettle-along. This is mostly just a reminder, as I haven’t had the time or head for more research yet. Anyone else find interesting information they’d like to share?

MotherOwl beat me to it and wrote a nettle post yesterday.

I’m going to harvest my next batch one of these days if it will stop raining at odd times.

Nettle-along project page

Tags

crafts, nature, nettle-along, plants

I’ve only added a few things to the Page due to health issues, next post will appear in a couple of weeks.

I’m beginning to suspect that the info about saving stalks for a year is incorrect. Looking through an old booklet suggests that “people of old” processed their nettles in the fall. I’ll try to write a summary and translate it because there is a lot of interesting information in there, including a few chuckles:

In Swedish from Carl von Linné 1749: “Nätslor voro här plåckade till grönkål, såsom det allmänt sker i Sverige om vårtiden, så længe denna nätsla är späd och ännu ej en fingers lång… Somliga lägga till denna sin nätsle-kål bladen av ängelöken eller körfvel, at kålen må få en angenämare smak; andra bruka plåcka bladerna af sqvaller-kål … och åtskilliga andra växter, utan åtskillnad, hvarigenom ofta händer, at folket, som äta kålen blifva vimmerkantiga.”

Nettle-along

Tags

country life, crafts, mad science, nature, nettle-along, nettles, plants, yarnalong

Motherowl asked me if I would host a study group for making nettle yarn. I know some of the bloggers that I follow have already tried this with varying results, but since I like to get my own hands-on failures I’m going through with this project anyway. So I’d love for everyone to chime in, newcomers as well as those who already have the t-shirt. The more info we can gather in one place, the better!