Net Knitting

The modest economic situation of Spreewald residents, who depend on the Spree’s drainage system, inevitably led to high levels of craftsmanship in the manufacture of everyday objects. This included fishing gear used by Spreewald fishermen, which they manufactured themselves until the middle of the last century.

Like fishing, weaving of nets was once a purely male domain. Fishing gear was built and repaired on long winter evenings. The knowledge of building fish traps, single- and triple-walled nets, drag nets and landing nets was passed down for centuries. With improved income and living conditions, as well as the industrial production of fishing equipment, many of these skills and knowledge have disappeared.

The “Community of Wendish/Sorbian Spreewald Fishermen of Burg and Surrounding Areas” has made it its mission to preserve these traditional activities and pass them on to future generations. “Net knitting” involves manual production of a net of uniform mesh size from twine (Lower Sorbian pśěźeno) using the traditional tools of a knitting stand (Lower Sorbian kózoł), a knitting needle (Lower Sorbian klaška), and a wooden knitting gauge (Lower Sorbian kołk).

The special feature is in the knotting technique, which requires some dexterity and practice to create uniformly sized stitches with stable knots using the twine stored on the knitting needle in one hand and the knitting stick in the other.

A distinction is made between the single-stitch and double-stitch techniques.

Knitting is always done on a taut yarn or net, which is wrapped around the knitting stand. While cotton was once used to make nets, synthetic fibers are used nowadays.

The knitting technique, however, remains unchanged, as the knitting stand, which consists of a suitable piece of wood with multi-armed branches, hand-carved knitting sticks for different mesh sizes and knitting needle.

Some of these tools are passed down from generation to generation. Even after long use, they are still used to create nets (Lower Sorbian seś), fish traps (Lower Sorbian pśěźeńco), and landing nets (Lower Sorbian śěšćak).

Willow rings and symmetrical branch forks give the latter their functional and individual shape. The practical use of these fishing gear creates a unique connection between original craft techniques and traditional fishing.

With “net knitting” an ancient craft skill survives in the Spreewald, which may still be broached in the training of today’s professional fishermen.

The traditional production of fishing gear is demonstrated by community representatives at regional markets and festivals and has already been documented on film.

(Author: Alexander Wach of the Spreewald Fishermen of Burg)