"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message ...

In article ,
Pete C wrote:

No, not nutters - we have plenty of them.

Out of curiosity, how many people make nets?

I made a pea net c. 30 years ago, and it is expiring, so I am
making a few more. That's partly because I plan to grow quite
a lot of climbing vegetables next year. I don't make my own
bird nets, as that's too much like hard work! But pea nets,
with their wide mesh, are quite easy.

I find that quite interesting. Would love to know material used and
method. Instructions with pics on some web space would be nice

It's easy to show and hard to describe. I learnt from a little
booklet ("Knotting and Netting (Graft Handbooks series)" by Leslie
Woollard. It's available secondhand, online. But, as others say,
there are also Web pages.

I don't bother with a square net (as used for tennis), as a simple
diamond one is much easier and good enough. I start by tieing the
initial loops to a length of dowel using clove hitches and a 4"
gauge (i.e. a piece of hardboard 1-2' long and 4" wide) and then
use a 6" gauge for the real net. Both gauges are trivial to make,
but should have their edges smoothed.

I got my current twine from Bridport nets. The best is probably
16z, but I got 2mm because I wasn't sure exactly how heavy 16z is
(and still am not). My previous net was 1.2mm, which is too thin.

I made my own netting needle, which is double-ended (it holds more),
somewhere halfway between the first and the stick shuttle in the
second:

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL38759.002
http://halcyonyarn.com/weaving_shuttles.html

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL38759.002

The latter is about the same size, too. It's not hard, starting
from a thin piece of hardwood. I had to do that because, at the
time, you couldn't buy them for love or money (and nor could you
buy rope hammocks, which is what I first used it for).


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
===========================================

I was evacuated to Beer in South Devon during the war and used to watch the
old fishermen repairing their nets. Learnt how to do it then but that was a
'few years ago'. I was fascinated by how they pulled it out to keep it tight
as it was growing or being prepared. Held out by hooking it over their big
toe!!

Mike

---------------------------------------------------------------
www.friendsofshanklintheatre.co.uk
www.hmscollingwoodassociation.com
www.rneba.org.uk
www.nsrafa.org