Tutorial: Knotless Double Hammock

Tutorial: Knotless Double Hammock
Wrap Used: Natibaby Spiderweb Dew, size 5
Level of difficulty: Moderate

1.  Get your child on your back in your preferred way.  You need the wrap over your child's back, with one tail a lot longer than the other.  For this carry, I usually aim to have the wrap so that my son's neck is half way between the middle marker and the end of the wrap. 

2.  Hold both top rails over your shoulders and pull them tight so that you secure your child into place.  Pin the rails under your chin or in your teeth, so that your child is held in place securely enough for you to remove your hands.

3.  With the rails tight under your chin/in your teeth, put your hands underneath your child's knees and take hold of the botton rail.  Pull downwards so that the fabric is pulled taught over your child's back.

4.  With the bottom rail securely in your hands, bring the fabric upwards between you and your child to create a good, deep seat.

5. Now that you have created a seat, remove the top rails from under your chin, and bring the shorter tail completely over your shoulder (the shorter tail is over my left shoulder in this picture).  Secure the shorter tail under your chin (or between your knees if it reaches).  This leaves both your hands free to work with the longer tail.

6. Take the longer tail straight across your body, keep the fabric tight and secure, with no slack.

7.  Pass the fabric over the back of your child and up towards your opposite shoulder.  I find this the most difficult stage of this carry,  as you need to keep the tension, but also get the fabric as high as possible.  Bring the tail up and over your shoulder.

8.  Take some time to adjust this pass and make sure you have taken out all the slack.  Ensure the pass which went across your chest is also tight, and work and slack through.  If you take the time at this stage to carefully tighten it all, it makes it a lot easier in the next stages.

9. Whilst tightening, tuck some of the botton rail under your child's bottom, from one knee pit to the other, to reinforce the seat.

10.  You should now have both tails over your shoulders.  Make sure you have tightened each tail securely, so that there is no loose fabric over your child's back.

11.  Secure the shorter tail under your chin, and pass the longer tail backwards towards your child's knee.

12.  Pass the wrap into your other hand, keeping the tension.  Pass the tail towards your child's other knee...

13....so that the wrap goes completely under your child, securing the seat into place.

14.  Bring that tail up towards your armpit.  You should now have both tails at the same shoulder, one coming from above it, and the other from underneath.

15.  This is now the 'knotless' part.  Bring the tail from underneath your arm over the top of the other tail.

16.  Bring that same tail round and through to create a single knot.

17.  Tighten it securely.

18.  Now drop the tail you have been working with (the one that came from underneath your arm), and take the other tail (the one that was over your shoulder) and feed it across your body....

19...and underneath the shoulder strap on the opposite side.

20.  Bring that tail down and under and chest strap and pull down to tighten.  The chest strap is great if you find, like me, that shoulder straps often fall of the edge of your shoulders.

21.  Now just spread the shoulders to make them comfortable for you.

22.  You're finished.  On this picture I can see that I have a bit of slack in my fabric, so would go back and tighten it through again.  Your child should feel very secure and tight against your back, with a lot of the weight being carried across your chest and not just on your shoulders.

Have fun!

Let me know if you have any questions by adding a comment here on my blog.  This is the first picture tutorial I have ever done, so thank you for looking!  Let me know if there are any carries you would like me to do a tutorial for in the future.