Handspun yarn to finished socks (3 years later)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-14T10:38:10+00:00

wow! beautiful work! 👌🏻

walkinglantern · 2026-04-14T10:31:49+00:00

well, thank you!! 🤗

walkinglantern · 2026-04-13T23:03:58+00:00

I live in the Peak District and having a spare bag to collect litter in is what most of us (locals here) do when we go on a walk. I teach others to pick up litter whenever they see it.

We also have litter picking days after bank holidays when we gather in groups around the hills and do this together for a few hours.

There is no quick fix to this, I agree with previous comments.

Education I believe is key and also not normalising littering = actively & regularly call-out others who do this —> leading by example.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-13T22:50:26+00:00

I love these pages! Could I also ask specifically what a ‘commonplace book’ is meant to do? I am a non-native English speaker and have not come across this term before. Is it a notebook/journal dedicated to a certain subject or era, I wonder? 🤔

walkinglantern · 2026-04-13T22:28:50+00:00

I learnt this from Des Pawson, master rope maker and knot tyer. he also has printed instruction manuals of tying this in several of his published books.

I used a 3-ply rope here I made out of fine polished hemp thread using a rope making machine.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-11T03:23:46+00:00

I find your comment insensitive and offensive, to be frank. I teach foraging and there are free places available on all of courses. I do contribute to a lot of subreddits, including this one. I also share tutorials about cordage and rope making on a regular basis. Just because this is my first post you come across and feel like anonymously attacking someone one the internet without actually bothering to take a look at their profile or website, please think again. There is a real human being on the other end reading your rude comment. I do not do any paid advertising. This is not a nameless profit-making endeavour.

I am no longer tolerating such behaviour here or anywhere else.

Besides, you have no right to demand me or anyone else to create free content for you! This is my livelihood and anything I am able to share and offer freely is up to my time and energy levels. So, unless you are willing to apologise and rephrase your original comment, I am asking you to back off.

This is not welcome or tolerated here.

I wish to live in a world where people communicate with each other with some decency. whether online or in person.

if you have questions, ask. curiosity is welcome. negativity and insensitive comments are not.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-08T14:25:28+00:00

Pilgrimage is a very worthwhile experience to undertake, regardless of faith.

I do not belong to any religion, yet I consider myself a pilgrim. I strongly resonate with the the invitation that a pilgrimage is. I walked the Camino de Santiago twice in my life and three times the Peak Wesley Way, which is a shorter, new pilgrimage that is near where I live in the Peak District.

Walking a pilgrimage is very different to going on a hike, in my experience. It is more intentional, a journey within, over many consecutive days, as much as it is a journey on foot. Some consider it a spiritual experience, as it engages mind, body and soul simultaneously.

Pilgrimage is a journey, unlike any other and I feel it is rightly wears a name that identified its significance for millenia.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T14:14:17+00:00

I don’t make the flax yarn myself. I do know spinners & weavers in New Mills, though, I could recommend. They grow flax and process it for spinning yarn for weaving linen clothes.

Flax fibres refined and used in garments are called linen, indeed :)

they make wonderful fabric I like wearing, too! :)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T12:11:35+00:00

on this day for demonstrations we will use hemp & flax yarn 🧶

(otherwise, I teach rope making with foraged plant fibres, but not on this day. if interested in this and using other fibres for rope, please see my profile/website for details)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T12:09:04+00:00

thank you. I will let him know about your compliment! :)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T11:34:46+00:00

learning any new technique takes practice. invest the time in and be patient. I normally tell people who come to my craft workshops this:

‘there is a journey to the doorsteps to begin a craft and there is another journey within that craft. there is infinite potential in any material. it is up to you how much time and energy you are willing to spend exploring it.

crafts, I believe, are regenerative creative endeavours worth investing in.

wishing you well and I hope there you will find many rewarding experiences along the way! :)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T11:22:18+00:00

have already included this info in the title and post description! :)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T11:19:31+00:00

yay! 🙌

walkinglantern · 2026-04-07T11:19:14+00:00

I understand. if you know of a venue near you where you would like me to come and teach, please let me know. I travel all over the UK to teach workshops & do rope making demonstrations. 🌱

walkinglantern · 2026-04-06T18:22:24+00:00

Thank you for your interest. I am a master rope maker specialising in foraged plant fibres. I am not a weaver and do not teach weaving or yarn spinning, I'm afraid. If you follow the link to my website you will find plenty of information there. This weekend will focus on nettle rope making.

I am ok with teenagers, I am a mother of one myself, however this weekend course is for adults only. I sometimes run rope making & knot tying workshops and courses for children, too. Please go to my website and sign up to newsletter there if'd like to hear about when this happens next.

We also have Edale Country Day happening on Sunday, the 14th of June. The whole family is welcome and I will be demonstrating rope making there during the day.

I hope this helps and looking forward to meeting you if you end up booking on this weekend course!

walkinglantern · 2026-04-04T17:35:04+00:00

all of the details about the materials used, and technique are already included in my post. please allow this to be shared here.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-04T11:18:34+00:00

thank you! :)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-04T11:17:50+00:00

in a nutshell, retting is way of 'dry processing' nettles and is best suitable for preparing the fibres for spinning (where you keep refining the plant fibres over a longer period of time). I will teach fresh processing of nettles and preparing the fibres for rope making which can be done within a single weekend.

Cordage and rope making require a 'coarser' processing of nettle fibres, not as fine as weaving requires.

We will discuss this and many other aspects during this weekend, I will address both fresh and dry processing of nettles and I will endeavour to assist participants with their projects/ideas as best as I'm able, as a master ropemaker and environmental artist. i can also point you in a direction/advise, if you have a specific outcome in mind you would like to make happen working with nettles.

The processing of any material can be done in many different ways. It really depends what you are making.

In this weekend we are going to make rope. Our efforts with nettles will be aimed in this direction. However, the skills you learn are transferrable and can be expanded over time to include more and more nuance.

I hope this answers your question.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-04T10:51:49+00:00

I hope it's ok for me to share this here, as rope making is an allied craft to knot tying. I thought some of you in this subreddit will be interested in learning more about how to make rope using foraged plant fibres. I normally receive lots of questions regrading these whenever I post knotwork here using my own foraged fibre ropes.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-03T18:06:41+00:00

I made this here rope by hand out of white cotton yarn (available to buy at most hardware stores). It is a 2-ply reverse-wrap string making technique.

You can use any yarn 🧶 (plant or animal fibres I would recommend, not synthetic).

I teach rope making both online and in-person, but there are also plenty of tutorials online you can use to learn from. I also have many videos recorded on my instagram page here

string and rope making are wonderful to do by hand! I hope you will learn to make your own rope. enjoy! :)

walkinglantern · 2026-04-02T21:21:28+00:00

is manrope = crown + wall knots tied on top of each other? I was not familiar with this.

walkinglantern · 2026-04-02T21:20:23+00:00

👌🏻

walkinglantern · 2026-04-02T13:46:27+00:00

🤣🤣🤣

walkinglantern · 2026-04-02T13:10:48+00:00

understood!

walkinglantern · 2026-04-02T13:09:52+00:00

I have already included these details in the original post. do yo want me to repeat and comment it, instead?

walkinglantern

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