Let me first say, this ‘how-to’ is not for the faint of heart. It’s a month-long project. Secondly, don’t dismiss it before you try, simply because you think it’s going to be difficult. Here’s a test to see if you really can accomplish this immense craft: 1. Have a friend blow in one of your ears 2. If air comes out the other ear, you shouldn’t attempt it. If it doesn’t, you definately have the ability!
You’re Going to Lose: A month of your life. That’s quite a chunk, so contemplate if you really want this. As far as supplies, it’s pretty inexpensive (about $10 in all).
You’re Going to Gain: A chill place to dry off after swimming; a relaxing area to read a book or take a nap; the greatest sense of accomplishment
If you’ve read this far, you’ve passed the test. Bon travail! Now all you need to do is accumulate the supplies. Fortunately, I already had a bunch of twine from my grandpa’s farm, so I used that. That’s what gave me the idea in the first place- I had all this twine, and nothing to do with it. Although mine is made from twine, I do NOT recommend using it. It’s rough on your hands to weave, breaks easily (depending on what kind you get), and it kindof smells when it gets wet. BUT, the knots stay put really well, as opposed to nylon for example. So I might suggest cotton. You can also use hemp, jute, or rope. You also need crossbars, which are the 2 bars at both ends of the hammock that stretch the knots apart.
Things You Should Know:
- If I could give you one piece of advice, it is this: find a comfortable place to work. If you don’t, not only will your fear of becoming a loser with no life come true, but your body will start to deteriorate. First your back will break, then your limbs will fall off, creating a slow and painful death. Don’t work in your attic in the middle of summer sitting on a bean bag chair.
- Choose sturdy and bug-free crossbars. Originally I sawed off branches of a tree in my backyard for the crossbars, but they were infested with cicadas, so I switched to boring wood from a barn.
- Give yourself a goal each time you start. I tried to do about 6 rows a day.
- Material is everything! Some of my twine was too thin, and it broke when I layed on it and I had to reweave some of the hammock.
- When hanging your hammock, try not to place it under a tree. I thought it would be nice with the shade (and I didn’t have a hammock stand), but it gathers mosquitos and catches leaves that you always have to pick off.
- If you want, add decorations. I added dark wooden beads.
- It looks cool if you use different colors. I used various shades of twine, but I realized when I was done that I used the thin twine in the middle and the thicker twine on the outer sides.
Directions:
1. Make your crossbars about 5 feet long. They can be whatever: wood/metal, found/bought, etc., as long as it’s sturdy
2. Measure 40 individual pieces of cord. I recommend getting 1300 yards, but I had alot left over. Each of the 40 pieces needs to be 32 yards each. This is the hardest part. I recommend measuring outside, and against an already measured length, for example, a patio. Get a friend to hold the end of the cord at the end of the patio. While they hold one end, run the rest of the cord to the other end of the patio. Let’s say the patio is 8 feet long. So you have to run each cord across the patio 4 times. Get your exercise now because you’ll be sitting for a long time later.
3. After measuring each cord, bend it in half, circle the bent end around one crossbar, and pull the ends through the loop. Before you despairingly tangle 80 cords, neatly curl each end into a bobbin by wrapping it around your thumb and pinky until you have about a yard left (loosely knot the bobbin with the twine itself or tie it with a zip-tie). Now your 40 cords are attached to the crossbar and the 80 ends are wrapped in bobbins.
4. Start square knotting: take the first 4 left strings, seperating the outer 2 from the inner two. Take the far right string OVER the middle 2. Next the far left string OVER the string you just brought over, and UNDER the middle 2, and out OVER the far right one. Keeping the 2 strings straight, pull the outer strings tight. Next take the string that’s now on the far right UNDER the middle 2. Take the far left string UNDER the one you just brought to the left, OVER the 2 middle strings, and UNDER the far right string. Pull tight again. Knot the same knot among each 4 strings along the first row.
5. In the 2nd row, you keep using the same knot, but each knot is in between the 2 above it. So start the 2nd row by skipping the first 2 strings. The 2 untied strings on each end of the 2nd row will be used in the 3rd row (the same positioning of knots as the 1st row).
6. Keep knotting rows until the hammock is long enough for you to lay in. When you’re done knotting, loop and knot the strings to the 2nd crossbar.
7. Hang the hammock with some of your extra cord.
