How to Knot a Little Hammock

Determine the desired length and width of your hammock. A loop on a finished hammock is generally about 1 1/2 inches wide, with a row of loops every 1 1/2 inches along the hammock's length.

Tie a 3-foot loop of rope, and secure one end of it to a solid surface. Load a netting shuttle with string, cut the free end from the spool, and tie it to the rope loop. Hold a stick horizontally underneath the loop, behind the hanging string, and wrap the string around it and out through the loop. Tie a half-hitch around the loop, and pull the bight to the right.

Tie several more loops, forming a row along the length of the stick, until the number of loops is two-thirds of the desired number of inches in the hammock's width. Turn the entire project over so the shuttle is on the left again, and carefully remove the stick from the loops, holding it horizontally below the row.

Make a second row, this time working with the loops in the first row rather than the large rope loop. Keep creating rows, working from left to right, until you have two-thirds as many rows as the desired number of inches in the hammock's length.

Untie the rope loop and cut it, pulling it free from the completed hammock. Cut several 50-inch lengths of string, one for each loop at the head and foot ends of the hammock. Tie a string to each end loop. Tie the free ends of the head strings to one metal ring and those at the foot to another. Hang the little hammock as desired.