A Hunter Gatherers Basket

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Having got to the stage of foraging for your food, you will need something to carry it in so it is time to make a basket of some sort. Gather the spokes and weaving material, sit by your camp fire and get to work. This is NOT a basket to sell so don’t think about what you have seen in the stores. This is a rough and ready model to serve one purpose ….gather food!
Spokes can be from any green brushwood but willow or hazel work best I have found.(it also depends on your location). The weaving material can be grasses, nettles, reeds etc., in fact just about anything you can gather easily.

Place the spokes evenly together and in the centre mark a line across them, the length being as long as you can comfortably manage and depending on how big your basket is going to be. Don’t go for big at this point … learn the basics first then grow as necessary. Hold them in the left hand at about half an inch below this line, then take the four nearest in the right hand, holding these half an inch above the line.(See diagrams below)
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Cross the spokes, place those in the right hand on the top of those in the left, and with it hold all firmly in this crossed position. The weaver must now be taken in the right hand, slipped between the spokes and the first finger of the left, and then brought before and behind each set of four spokes in turn, catching the end in its course.
bas4
Do one more row, and when the weaver has for the second time been placed across each side of the top set of spokes, do not take it behind the next set before beginning to work with single spokes, but begin the next row at once by placing it behind and before each spoke alternately, till one row has been done.
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” Behind ” will thus come first, and this is important on account of the odd spoke to be inserted in the next row. After one whole row has been done, it will be found that the weaver comes behind the same spoke as in the previous row. This would be wrong, and the odd spoke must now be brought into use. Point its end slightly and push it down behind the nearest set of spokes. Work on till the base is the size required. The odd spoke will mark the commencement of each row, being a little longer than the others.
bas6
Continue weaving and bending the spokes into a ‘basket ‘ shape as you weave and inserting new spokes as necessary. It won’t be long before you see the basket forming and logic determines how you progress.