Homemade Hammock

Nap, sky gaze or curl up with a book in your custom hammock.

Some people's idea of the perfect afternoon is lazing away in a comfortable hammock. But not everyone is fortunate enough to have a hammock already installed in their yard. If you have shopped around, you might have noticed that hammocks are more difficult to find now than they used to be, and they may cost a lot more. Even if you locate one for the right price, there is no guarantee that it will be long enough to fit between your available trees. If you have some weaving experience, you can save time and trouble by making your own. Does this Spark an idea?

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Piece of twine, 3 feet long
Giant netting shuttle
2 pounds hammock cord
Gauge stick
Scissors
Wooden dowel
Drill
2 wooden bars, 1 1/2 inches by 1 1/2 inches by 33 inches
40 cut lengths of hammock cord, 50 inches
2 metal rings, 3-inch

Instructions

- 1
  
  Tie the ends of the twine together in a square knot. Hang the circle of twine over a doorknob. Fill the shuttle just over halfway with the hammock cord and knot the free end to the center of the twine loop.
- 2
  
  Cast on the first row. With the gauge stick in your left hand, bring the shuttle cord down under the stick from the front and up from the back. Bring the shuttle through the beginning loop and hold the loop tightly to the gauge stick as you half hitch around the beginning cord in both directions.
- 3
  
  Repeat the previous step until there are 20 proper loops on the gauge stick. Tighten the cord and spread the loops with your fingers so that they are approximately equidistant along the stick. Slide the gauge stick out of the loops.
- 4
  
  Move the gauge stick to your non-dominant hand; the shuttle should be on the same side. Work the shuttle under the stick from the front and up from the back, thread it through the first loop and bring it around in a half hitch. Do this same process for the remaining 19 loops.
- 5
  
  Continue making rows in the same way that you did the first. Make approximately 54 rows, which will be about 7 feet. Add more cord when necessary by tying the end of the new cord to the end of the old in a square knot and reloading the shuttle.
- 6
  
  Snip through the loop of twine and pull it out. Slide a long wooden dowel through the loops in its place to hold the cords, if needed.
- 7
  
  Starting 2 1/4 inches from one end, drill 20 equidistant 1/4-inch holes along both of the wooden bars. Stop 2 1/4 inches from the opposite ends. Thread one of the rings with one of the 50-inch cords and slip the ends through the first hole in one bar, then knot the ends of the cord around the first loop of one end of the hammock.
- 8
  
  Attach the rest of this end of the hammock to the bar and ring in the same way and repeat on the opposite end. Construct two braids from extra hammock cord, each about 3 inches shorter than the length of the hammock. Slip the ends of the braids into the end holes of one wooden bar and knot them in place; weave the braids in and out down the sides of the hammock and secure them to the wooden bar at the other end in the same way.