Netting . . . holes tied together with string

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Hats off, everyone, to the stone-age technician who invented the net ... a perfect example of just a little material used in exactly the right way to do a job well. A simpler solution to a hundred problems of holding, catching or carrying things would be hard to think of. No wonder that nets—already known to prehistoric man—appear in Egyptian wall paintings, were employed by the ancient Greeks and are still in wide use to this day.

The commercial fisherman has his trawls and seines, and the sporting angler his landing net. Webbing of various kinds is used in war for camouflage, in play as a barrier (tennis and volleyball) or as a catcher (basketball) and in everyday life to carry and hold objects. I've seen nets rigged in trains and cars to support small articles up out of the way, and tied over a truck bed to keep bulky loads in place. On the front cover of MOTHER NO. 8 you can see one serving a purpose for which strength and lightness are mandatory (as a gondola support on a man-carrying balloon).

You can easily produce one of these useful devices by hand ... not a common operation nowadays, but the process is so simple and the result so handy that it's well worth your while to learn the satisfying netcrafter's art.

What can you make of netting? Well, how about a string bag that will crumple to a pocket- or handbag-sized handful ... yet hold as much as two supermarket sacks and—unlike them—never tear under any load you'd want to carry? The technique is so easy and quick that you can create one of these gadgets as a gift for—say—your dinner party hostess while she looks on.

Or you can make a hammock which will take up no room to speak of in a camping outfit, yet will spread to a comfortable bed when slung between two trees.

You can also knot together a protective cover that will keep birds off the strawberry patch, or a snare with which to trap animals for food. I myself learned the craft in wartime when I needed to catch rabbits for meat.

Perhaps you'd like to have a net slung under the roof of your car or camper to carry small articles-maps and so on—where they'll be out of reach, but where you can always see them. And wouldn't you enjoy making your own equipment for badminton, tennis, volleyball or netball?

Any article you produce, of course, can be tied from different-colored twines if you want it to be decorative as well as useful.

THE NETTING NEEDLE

You need only one tool to make a net: a wooden needle shaped as shown in Fig. 1.