Macrame Your Own Hammock

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When you have to begin stooping to work, run an extra piece of cord through the hammock and tie its ends and middle to the branch (see Fig. 7) to bring your working area back up to a comfortable level.

Make the sling bed anywhere from 5 to 7 feet long (depending on how long you are). The hammock will stretch, so don't go overboard on length ... or you'll find yourself kissing your toes while your rear bumps the ground!

If you find the last row of knots uneven as you finish off the bed, work the end of the hammock off square, knot by knot.

ATTACHING THE SECOND POLE WITH A DOUBLE HALF HITCH

When your hammock is as long as you want it, you'll finish the bed by tying all 80 cords around the second branch (after testing it for strength the way you tested the first pole).

To make this job a third row of knots up from the bottom of the hammock and tie the cross-cord to the top branch at several points so that the last row of knots is hanging down flat at a handy working level (see Fig. 8).

Now hang the bottom pole up parallel to the last row of knots so that you can macramé it to the hammock. Tie this pole to the top crosspiece with extra cord so that the second staff is parallel to the floor, balanced and close enough to the last row of knots so that those knots will almost reach the second pole when you tug on the cords (see Fig. 9).

You'll be using a new knot, called the double half hitch, to fasten the macraméd body of the hammock to its second pole (see Fig. 10). Begin this operation by laying the staff across all the cords as explained above. Then bring the first cord on the right up from underneath, around the pole and back down othe right side of the main body of the cord. Next, draw the twine up from underneath and over the pole a second time. . but on this pass carry it to the left of the main cord and threa it down through the loop you've just formed (as shown in Fig. 10). Draw the main part of the cord tight and then snug down, the finished half hitch.

Tie an identical half hitch in the next cord and continu working your way left until you've knotted every twine to the second staff and all the ends of string are hanging evenly from the pole.

At this point it's a good idea to stretch the hammock our firmly to check it for "square" and evenly distributed tautness. When you're satisfied that the finished piece is as good as you can make it, you should anchor the cords of the bed to the second pole once and for all so that there's absolutely no chance that they can work loose.

This final anchoring is accomplished with the aid of our old friend, the square knot. Grasp the first four cords on the left (sound familiar?) and tie two or three square knots, one right after the other. Then tie two or three square knots in the next, four cords (see Fig. 11) and continue on, knotting four cords at a time, until you reach the end of the row of strings.

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