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Deedee



Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 9:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

LOL is it bright pink then?? No not really the sort of thing you were after then...Wilkinsons sometimes have big bundles of raffia quite cheap if thats any help?Not sure what the lengths are.

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 9:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Deedee: it may not be bright pink but baler twine comes in an 'exciting' range of colours! I am going to try weaving things from it outdoors, though: it would jolly up boring stock netting until things grow up it.

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives to wadding or foam, esp as it mainly needs to look nice. Sawdust is pretty traditional, no? Or perhaps you have wool, or an old pillow that can be raided for organs?

Deedee



Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 250
Location: Surrey
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 9:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

I can just imagine lovely multicoloured fields now!What a great idea.I try to recycle as much stuff as I can which has led to a few 'disagreements' with his nibs as he's one of these everything in its place types..not good when I'm the worlds biggest clutter junkie,you should see my loft Still he can't be all bad he's put up with me and my ways this long I'll have a rummage thru my crafty bits and see if theres anything in there that might do.I bought some jute string a while back and I'm sure its under a pile somewhere...

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 11:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Deedee: sounds just like me! I have piles of all sorts: cloth, paper & card, yarn & thread, you name it... except string! My old chap isn't a tidy freak, though, so we get on fine, it untidily! I'm trying to find a use for old veg. nets at the moment to use up the stash of those: any ideas? (apart from to keep veg in!)

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 12:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

When you say veg nets, do you mean the bags, or nets you use to keep bugs and birds off the veg? Or something else? If the former, you could also use them for the latter. There're a couple of other ideas in Gertie's thread about her baler twine and carrot bags that might help too

Mrs Fiddlesticks



Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 10460

PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 1:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

some sort of webbing would also work, a canvas type or strong grossgrain ribbon perhaps?

Sisal string is avaliable from hardware stores - I got mine from a Wilkinson's type place for a £1 a ball!

Interested in this idea of using bramble stems, more please on that one! See plenty on my walks out...

Gervase



Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 4:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

At one of our local agricultiral shows this year there were quite a few entries in the craft section made from baler twine, inclduing a rather good bathroom mat and some baskets. Very colourful, and pretty hard-wearing, too.

Gertie



Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire
PostPosted: Tue Jan 18, 05 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Hi Mochyn - hey you say the word, I can let you have a hundredweight of baling twine - anyway, don't knock it for being pink - it's orange actually

Likewise I have some fetching carrot bags - any colour you want as long at they are orange.

When you mentioned footstool I thought you were after some material to cover a padded footstool. I think I know the type you mean, now.

Taking advice from Gervase I could use my baler twine to make some bathroom mats - would clash with the existing colour, though.

Actually, I remember my grandma used to make two types of rug a clippie mat made from fabric clippings and used as you would use wool to make a mat (i.e. readicut), and a proddie (?) made which was just fabric woven between hessian, I think!!!!

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 05 10:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

OK the veg bags are the sort you get 25K of veg in: orange for onions, peuce for beets, green for, well, greens, green top and white bottom for leeks. I'm sure I could use them for something.

It came to me last night that I could use strips of cloth, woven, but the mention of proggie mats has made me think again. I have a small hessian sack that chestnuts came in and is about the right size to cover the stoool, and upstairs is a box of rug-making tools, as well as rucks of cloth in a chest. So, watch this space! I'll do before & afters of the project.

And as for baler twine: it often seems to festoon the hedges like sookbind in high summer!

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 05 10:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

mochyn wrote:
So, watch this space! I'll do before & afters of the project.


In fact it would make a very very nice article for the main site Would you?

Quote:
And as for baler twine: it often seems to festoon the hedges like sookbind in high summer!


Takes your mind off all the mollocking, I suppose

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 05 10:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Brilliant book, tydi? For those not in the know it's COld Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. Read it and weep! (with laughter). And yes, I'll do an article, when I can work out how to put pics on the site!

Bugs



Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 05 4:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Fantastic, I'll hold you to that . No need to worry too much about getting the pics on the site, you can pm or email them to me and I'll get my lovely assistant (Treacodactyl) to sort them out (I'm at least as bad as you with pics...the ones I put up for the wind power article had a huge white background too ) and go in the article.

What does "tydi" mean....I've looked it up on Google and can only find "thou" in Welsh, is it Welsh? or am I being daft?

Cold Comfort Farm is a fantastic book, definitely in my top 10, and I even like the film well enough; in fact, it's very nearly relevant to this site, perhaps I'll do a review of it.

Gertie



Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Posts: 1638
Location: Yorkshire
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 05 4:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

Mochyn - proggie mat, that's the name!!!!!!!

I'll be interested to see how you do. They were pretty hardwearing, those rugs.

Ah, I'm just remembering my grandma in her kitchen, she had a range and she would make some lovely triangular scones and stottie cakes and she wouldn't be stingy with the butter - there'd be about half inch thickness of butter in the middle of them - scrummy!!

mochyn



Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 24585
Location: mid-Wales
PostPosted: Wed Jan 19, 05 4:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
    

'Tydi': nearest equivalent is 'isn't it'.

The footstool is taking shape: I've stripped off the old string and got the hessian on and am now onto the first row of covering. I decided on denim as it's hard wearing and I've got several pairs of the old chaps worn out jeans. So, tasteful shades of blue and green. Looking good, and I'm photographing every step! And I've just mended a shelf I've been on at him to mend for two years. Ask a busy woman, eh?!

Right, more ragging to be done...

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