4.Create two more channels. Repeat step 3 to create two more channels up toward the top of the door flap, each 1 foot or so apart from the others.

5.Position the door flap. Lay the lavvu canvas so the doorway is flat on the ground, and then lay the door flap over the doorway, so the bottom of the door flap lines up with the bottom of the canvas and the door flap is perfectly centered over the doorway. At the top of the door flap, fold under the last 1/2 inch of the edge and carefully pin it to the canvas.

6.Attach the door to the canvas. Carefully lift the canvas and door flap and sew a double line of neat stitches to fix the door flap to the lavvu canvas. As an extra option, you can sew in some string here, too, which will allow you to tie the doorway open. I used some webbing straps and buckles for this purpose in the photographs.

7.Enhance the canvas. Though it’s not necessarily required, you can now sew loops to the bottom edge of the canvas at regular intervals to allow you to fix the canvas in place to the ground with tent pegs. I have generally found the canvas to be heavy enough to not need this. Another alternative is creating “pockets” for the poles to sit in. This will help stabilize your lavvu and also means you won’t have to use pegs. If you want to create such pockets, you’ll first need to set the lavvu up and decide on how many poles you will end up using and where these poles will sit, so you can mark the correct spots.

Procuring Lavvu Poles

The canvas is now ready for use. The original idea, as practiced by the Sami, is to simply pack the canvas and cut new poles whenever the camp moves to a new area. In your situation, this would mean that the canvas could only be used where suitable poles may be found, so depending on the area where you live or your intended use, you may choose to make poles to take along with your canvas.

There is quite a bit of flexibility regarding the poles. They should not be too long as that would cause a gap between the canvas and ground, but they can easily be shorter than intended. In that case, the bottom of the canvas would simply bunch up on the ground. As noted on the materials list above, the poles do not have to be perfectly straight.

When procuring poles, keep the environment in mind and avoid unnecessary destruction of habitat, especially if you’re sourcing poles each time you take the lavvu out. You should consider sticking to deadfall or cutting live poles only where you help remedy overcrowding.

Setting Up the Lavvu

1.Raise the first three poles. To set up the lavvu, slide two of the forked poles through the smoke hole while the canvas is lying on its side with the lower edge bunched up. Lay the poles so their feet are 10 feet apart. Then, reach underneath the canvas with the fork of the third pole and raise the forked side of the two poles up while making sure the two forks are interlinked. When the poles are raised as far as they will go, interlink the third forked pole with the other two, and push the three forks farther up until you can place the third pole on the ground to form a tripod.

2.Add the rest of the poles. Drag the other poles into the structure and slide them up through the smoke hole, placing their tops over the forked poles with three (or more) poles in each space between the forked ones. (The only exception is the doorway, where you’ll only use two poles, one on each side of the doorway.) Space their bottom ends out to form a circle roughly 10 feet in diameter. At this point, straighten out your canvas so it is draped equally around the structure.

3.Shape the lavvu. Now, starting with the third forked pole, you can carefully go around the lavvu, moving each pole 1 foot or so outward. As you go around, you should feel the canvas getting tauter. While you’re going around, you may have to occasionally push up the smoke hole opening somewhat if it’s restricting the outward movement of the poles. Also try to ensure that the doorway is left clear of poles. You are finished moving the poles outward once the lavvu forms a circular footprint on the ground and the canvas is nice and taut all the way around. If you find a few saggy areas here and there due to the crookedness or flexibility of the poles, then that’s nothing to worry about. If you created loops for pegs, then you can now peg the canvas down to the ground. Slide the three straight branches through the tubes you made in the door flap, making sure the door flap is outside the lavvu as you do this, and your lavvu is ready for use.

This is a good time to decide whether you are happy with the lavvu as is, or if you wish to add loops for pegs or pockets for holding the poles. If you do, then you should either mark out where the poles are, or mark where you’d like to attach loops for tent pegs.

The way I described setting up the lavvu is simply the easiest way to put it into words. Once you gain a bit of experience yourself setting it up, you will probably find a method that suits you better. It shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes or so to set up the finished lavvu from start to finish. Taking it down is accomplished by following the set-up instructions in reverse.

Using the Lavvu

Now that the lavvu is set up, you should find yourself with a circular space that’s 13 to 14 feet in diameter. Personally, I like arranging my life around an open fire in the middle, generally keeping the (well-contained) fire between the entrance and my bedding. It is also possible to arrange for a wood-burning stove in the center, though you may have to provide for room around the stovepipe to ensure the canvas and wood stay well clear. An alternative is to use special canvas designed to be in contact with stovepipes and creating a special stovepipe hole somewhere else in the roof. The back wall would be a sensible place, though adequate distance between wall and stove must be maintained.

The lavvu is so simple to make and easy to set up, I wonder why it is not a more popular structure for modern-day camping and events. Of course, throughout history, the style has been immensely popular, being used with local variations by peoples all across the globe. If you’re handy, you can even set up a similar structure with bare poles and wrap a plastic tarpaulin around it instead of a shaped canvas. In this book, I also describe the building of a Mongolian-style ger (also known as a yurt). The lavvu is much simpler to make, and when compared to the ger; its only disadvantage is a smaller amount of usable space as the roof goes all the way down to the ground (while the ger has upright walls). For the above reasons, the lavvu is more useful when you are on the move and need shelter for shorter periods of time.