How do I repair my Mayan hammock?

OK! Occurred. Despite your best intentions, you used buttons or loops on your hammock and broke one or more of the strings. What are you doing now? In this article we will cover the repairs of three of the most common mishaps that can happen to the Mayan hammock.

• The number one mishap, and the most common, is one or two ropes breaking because they got caught on something on your clothes. The solution is quite simple. Take both ends of the rope and tie a single weaver’s knot. What’s that? Make a U shape in one of the ropes. Then bring the end of the other string up through the back of the U, around the back, and then under itself. Fitted sweater. Trim the edge; and reattach the string to the weave. Repeat for any other broken strings.
• Mishap number two starts out like mishap number one, except it has mercerized cotton or nylon strings that don’t break easily. In this case, you end up with a long loop that sticks out of the weave. In this case, you will carefully pull the string on each side of the loop so that the loop almost disappears and you have two smaller loops, one on each side. Then pull the string from the opposite side of each loop to make more smaller loops. Keep doing this, tracing the rope along the length of the hammock until you only have a series of small loops running the length of the hammock. Then take the end of the hammock and shake it vigorously. If necessary, you can gently pull and spread the weave around the rope in question until it looks nice.
• Setback number three is the bad one. It can happen when your teenagers invite their friends over; and no one quite knows how almost a third of the hammock was cut off! Trying to retie and weave this mess would bring a grown man to tears. So don’t try it. Get some fishing line or other thin but strong rope. Pass one end of the wound and tie the tissue tightly in a strong knot. Then, spirally stitch evenly and carefully along the entire length of the wound, making sure to get at least a couple strands of good hammock rope on each side of the tear. Continue past the end of the rip and tie another tight knot. You can trim all the dangling string beards and you’re done. This is not a beautiful repair, but it will last for years.

The beauty of these repairs is that even when they don’t look that great, the comfort of the hammock is usually not affected at all.