Posted by Carl DuBois on Tuesday, 20 December 2005, at 9:56 a.m.:
In Reply to: Re: Hammock Weaving posted by Cynthia Gens on Wednesday, 26 July 2000, at 12:18 p.m.:
To: anyone interested in weaving a hammock
From: Carl D. DuBois
carl-lauretta_dubois@sil.org
phone: 209-484-6329 (Verizon)
Date: December 18, 2005
Subject: Hammock Weaving: The Two-Shuttle Method
In the mid 1970s, the cotton Mayan hammock we had been using wore out. After examining it closely, I began weaving a replacement using polyethylene fishing line. Between 1976 and 2002 I wove thirteen hammocks as a hobby at the rate of about one every two years. In 2001 a young man in Fiji asked me by email how to weave a hammock so he could teach Fijians a livelihood project. That led me to begin writing an instruction book telling how to make a loom and shuttles, what weaving materials are needed, and how to begin weaving, finish the edges and make the end harnesses.
In 2002, when I finally read an already published book about how hammocks are woven in Ecuador, I realized that the two-shuttle method I had developed reduced the time and effort required by half. Later I taught several Tagabawas to weave hammocks made of very comfortable nylon seine twine, and some of them are now weaving hammocks for export. Lauretta is now accepting orders for hammocks.
Recently the book I wrote was published by Wipf and Stock Publishers in Eugene, Oregon. W&S publishes "print on demand." Whenever they get an order, they send the computer file to a laser printer, put on a cover, and have it in the mail the following day, so even though they carry no book inventory, neither will it ever be "out-of-print."
This book will soon be listed with Ingram and Books-in-Print, marketed both directly to universities and libraries in the USA and Canada, and over the Internet through Amazon.Com and Barnes&Noble. A recent Google search on the title resulted in four hits.
If you are interested, the ISBN is 1-59752-439-5. Although copies may be ordered via the W&S website at