Gourds come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and have many uses, such as a canteen to carry water or other tasty beverages.
I used a 30 foot hank of green 550 paracord to do some half hitching/needle hitching around the body of the gourd. I actually came up short and had to tie in another few feet of black paracord to complete the hitching around the bottom of the gourd.
I used about 9 feet of black crosslace cord for the 5 lead 4 bight 3 pass Turk's Head knot around the neck of the gourd. Another 7 feet of paracord was used for the jug/bottle sling knot for a carry option.
An online friend, Manny, sent me this gourd so that I might try some knot work on it. He also sent me some improvised paracord needles, made out of a Chinese chopstick from a dollar store. They worked fine for the hitching.
I think that the hitching would make for a neat stuff sack/pouch, if first tied around a bottle as a form then removed when finished, with a cord lock used at the top for a cinch type closure.
A lot of paracord and patience could go into making a sleeping bag stuff sack... I know I've seen mention of doing netting type knot work for projects like that, but haven't seen any actual examples done with 550 paracord. If anyone has links to such, please share them in the comments section of this post.
A couple of good knot books that I have found with examples of hitching, are 'Creative Ropecraft' and 'The Art of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing, and Ropework'.
