Something’s wrong!

Never before seen in nature! I spend an hour processing rope right in front of The Evil Kitten and he just sat and watched!  Usually I have to lock him out of the room right away.  What’s going on?!

In case I think I was hallucinating.

Rope wallpaper.

Do I love the GIMP too much? Maybe.

Blue tilable rope wallpaper

 

Rope story II

(See Rope story part I.)

Several hundred feet of hemp rope hanging to dry.

Rope story I

10 kg of raw hemp rope, bundled to go to the laundrymat. Each coil is about 100 ft. Also pictured, The Kitten, who loooves the ropes.

Splish splah we're takin a bath.... Rope at the laundry mat.

All the rope was all twisted up like this coming out of the washing machine.

Rope flaoting around in the pot, looking all nice before the water turned black.

While some of the rope was cooking, the rest of it was soaking in the tub.

(Part II)

Self knowledge game

I went to play with a sub the other night. I thought I would share a game we played.

The goal was that he would be able to give me some warning about when the position I put his body in was going to get to be too much. This is so that I can have enough time to untie the ropes, remove a glass from his back, whatever it is. I would like to do things calmly, not hurried.

So basically the rules are, I give him a difficult position, and he tells me when he has x time left. For example when he thinks he has 30 seconds, or two minutes.

To this I also added a touch suggest by Shaitan, of putting a stethoscope in his ears and getting him to listen to his heart beat also. While Shaitan’s idea was more sensory deprivation, this was for the “know thyself” effect of paying attention to what your body is going through. Here is how I rigged up the stethoscope, with a breast harness and some skewers:

this is wear my heart is

(Somebody provide me with a real camera and a model: I promise not to just post pictures of myself forever. But this is what I am working with for now!)

I couldn’t think of many good positions so we just played twice. I don’t really know what to look for for further inspiration. Maybe yoga? I think next time I will change the rules so that the position must be kept still, not to the point where you fall down after struggling and writhing for a bit. Though that was cute.

Hemp rope?

Well I would really love some of that nice hemp or jute rope. The hippie in me is overly-fond of natural fibers, and the truth is that I don’t find tying my friends up in synthetics very nice for the same reason I don’t get into PVC fetish: petroleum is not sexy.

That said, processed bondage rope is really fucking expensive. My experiments with the nylon stuff have lead me to the conclusion that to tie up a medium-sized man I need at least 200 ft of rope. There is not much point in getting less than that, and I’m sure I could deal with having more. 🙂 At this point in my life I definitely can’t spend a month’s rent on rope. To tell the truth, I don’t know if I would ever be able to justify an expense like that. So I have been considering processing my own.

Maui Kink sells 3 kg of rope for $64. They say this is about 450 ft of rope. (Knowing still that rope shrinks with processing.) Assuming that’s in US$, that comes out to about 16¢ Canadian per foot. Compare that to CA$1.13 per foot for the TM stuff. (Shipping extra on both natch.) My time is not as valuable to me as my money.

I found a really good video (with a super cute lady named Fivestar in it who made a comment about being tied to her bike!!) of following instructions from Mike West regarding the processing of rope. Other than the awesome host of the video, I really appreciated that the washer and dryer being used were laundry-mat style, so discretion during all the washing and drying was worked on. I think that’s good because not all kinksters are rich IT people, it turns out!  Here is another account from someone following the same instructions.

Instructables has some directions involving much less laundry. They also include a different idea of stretching the rope over sharp metal instead of just pulling it like is mentioned in Fivestar’s video.

Maybe when my loan comes in I will buy a spool of rope. I’m not sure, I’ll see.

Nettles

Well, Spring is here and all sorts of plants are pushing through the soil. An old friend of mine who will soon be arrive is the Stinging Nettle.

Picture of Nettle, borrowed from BrewBook on Flickr

Off and on I have consumed Nettle infusion for a few years now. An infusion is a tea which is left to steep for 4-8 hours rather than the traditional 2-10 minutes. This allows time for the plant to break down fully in the water. Also, components of plants which are broken down early in steeping aid in further digesting other components later on.

As a side note, if you regularly drink any form of herbal tea, I recommend trying a cup which has been steeped 4-8 hours alongside a cup which has just been brewed. The difference in taste is not only that it is stronger, but is noticeably different in quality. (I recommend this with a leaf or root-based substance as flower teas finish much quicker owing to their more delicate construction.)

The taste of a nettle infusion is rich and earthy. It is not the grassy flavour some other herbs present with, nor are there much volatile oils such as with the mints and culinary herbs. To me it tastes strongly of health, vitality, spring, earth and green. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but delicious over ice during a heatwave.

The flavour is not misleading, nettle is actually ridiculously healthy, being high in iron as well as other minerals and vitamins. It is also one of the most commonly-used herbs in western European clinical herbalism, considered with its balancing qualities to be as close to a panacea as anything could be.

(Excuse me for hippying out there for a second.)

While I do not know of any stands large enough to harvest enough nettle to supply me with much infusion (which requires one dry ounce per liter), I do know where to obtain sufficient plant to play a few games.

Nettle contains histamine, and elicits a mild allergic reaction. Myself I have worked barehanded with nettles before and been fine, but then I used to install fiberglass insulation in short and a tank top, so YMMV.

Now I am also wondering, could I quickly make a rope of nettle to bind someone? The deceptively-named paddling.net (actually about kayaking and canoeing!) has a report of creating rope out of nettle, though in a way so as to remove the stinging qualities. Also found a website which contains detailed, illustrated instructions to making rope out of nettle and other easily-found fibres.

No more white rope!

Well I was sick and tired of all my rope being white.  I find white to be one of the most unappealing of all colours.  So I thught about a colour to dye them.  I considered that the dye may not take too well, and that it might fade.  I decided on brown because it matches lots of other colours, plus really any shade of brown is better than white, so no matter how it turned out it would be better.

BTW this is 100% nylon twisted 6mm rope, the hardware store kind.

Bought 2 packages of chocolate brown dye

Cooking the rope, a few minutes in. Looks good!

I start to notice a bit of green coming through at the ends of the rope. If I knew then what I know now I would have pulled it out right then and there!

But since I didn't, I have now 200ft of bright green rope

Well it’s certainly unique!

This is what I get for being impatient and not testing.  tsk tsk tsk! Lesson learned!

Maybe I can dye it red on top?  That might make brown, but potentially a really ugly brown.  Hmmmm

Rope fun & dicey consent issues

My cat, fed up from trying to get me to pet him, just got up, lied down on the floor, sighing. I did not know cats could sigh.

---

So yesterday I had two rope practice dates, for a total of 7+ hours of consecutive rope. What fun! Some short thoughts:

• I would really like to find a woman to tie up. There are things I’d like to try that don’t really make sense on a man.
• I tend to want to tie people in easy positions they would sit in anyway. I think this is because I am not certain how anyone else’s body fees and I don’t want ot make them uncomfortable. But there is a lot to be said for being uncomfortable.
• I get really really ridiculous when I get someone at all in my power. Is there a word for that? Is it some sort of fetish? Or am I just a big dork?
• My older, sungglewhore lovey cat really liked it when I was tied up on the floor where he could some and rub himself into my face, while I was defenseless against him and his writhing.
• I really ned to have some ideas ready when people are good enough to donate their time to me.

And one longer thought.

Consent

Oh, consent. Consent is the only thing shared by rival SSC and RACK philosophies. It is a simple moment of “yes” and it is a lifetime of negotiation skills.

I remember going to a workshop hosted by Philly’s Pissed, I think it was supposed to be about the work that they do, but instead but it was hijacked by everyone in the room, who wanted to spend the whole thing in what had been intended as an introductory agenda item: what is consent? I think out of my whole life, that workshop might have been one of the most enlightening hours in terms of my own behaviour.

It brought to light times when I had pushed people into things they were not necessarily comfortable with, or when I had simply taken without asking, because if I had asked I knew the answer might have been “no”. Times when I had assumed I was entitled to someone’s flesh, when the answer probably would have been “yes” but I didn’t ask anyway.

You know that way where you figure something out and then get kind of irritated with people who aren’t quite there yet? Or, actually to lesser extent to tell the truth, people who have gone and done the same intellectual exercises and come up with a different answer.

The truth about me is that I sort of stumbled into the great big world of anarcha feminism. Many hours of over many years spent thinking about power dynamics in society as a whole, as well as in interpersonal relationships have lead me to conclusions which make a shitload of sense to me and yet seem to be curious and shocking on a regular basis.

I have a really hard time when someone who likely has good intentions in mind breaks a rule that to me seems obvious. But then I remember that I have the benefit of a lot of unusual experience. I am always of mixed minds how to feel and react. For instance….

Last night

We had agreed to tie each other up, “nothing sexual”. We kept our clothes on, (which I really like for aesthetic reasons) but at the end he was complaining about my pants, so I said, OK I will take them off. And my shirt while I’m at it? OK. Being naked does not equal being sexual, at least to me.

Personally I am quite comfortable being nude, I don’t really mind taking my clothes off. It’s really not a big deal to me. Thing is, it felt like as soon as I did this the mood changed. Where my partner had previously been pretty respectful of my body, now I was getting groped. It wasn’t really super unpleasant, I was feeling alright and all that, and I have been known to feel up my friends’ manboobs, so I didn’t say anything about it. It was flirtatious and light, still OK.

He played with a couple of crotch ropes, pulling them so they felt nice or ticklish. Should I have let him? Or should I have said, “No, this isn’t what we agreed to”?

But there were a couple of comments about how “tempting” it was to have me tied up like this. Was that supposed to be flirty? It was kind of scary really. There was a moment where I was on the ground, tied up, and he lied beside me to grab my leg with his. That was where I felt it needed to stop. That was where I knew the email negotiations that made this happen had gone out the window. Thank fuck I was not tied too well and was able to physically resist this.

It seems to me that if you make a deal with someone, they ought to stick by it. Myself I am not a fan of renegotiation mid-scene, and when I have actually agreed to have a scene, I do make this clear. I think, as a sub/bottom, my judgement is not clear, and it is really unfair to get me to reconsider my views on something once I am in a different headspace.

While I was being tied up by my first friend, I got really comfy feeling, and very floaty, which I am not prone to, it was very enjoyable. He told me I looked very serene, was considerate of me and didn’t try to take anything I had not consented to. My second friend though, decided that this sort of situation was a good opportunity to push what I agreed to, to see what he could get out of me.

While I don’t mind what actually happened, a few gropes and all, it does not seem like I would be comfortable doing this again with someone who is going to try to get what they can, and not just respect an agreement which had been made. Can I trust someone like that? Someone I will always have to be on guard with? What’s the point? That is so unpleasent.

And yet I encounter this on a regular basis. People Men seem to legitimately think that it is acceptable to push and push and push until I have to say “No.” Why wait for someone to stop you before you ask?

Videos of rope making

I don’t know which tradition this is, but how neat! I was taught how to make bark rope by a hippie once and it took so long to get just a little bit. This is so fast to make so much! How ingenious.

And then there is this video of decidedly non-traditional but still expedient ropemaking:

(both via nawataipan)