First night hang on DL tablecloth 90x156 hammock a success! Couple of questions.

[vanRijn]

I just received my Black Crinkle Taffeta Tablecloth 90x156" and Navy Crinkle Taffeta Tablecloth 90x156" yesterday from tableclothsfactory.com. I followed Just Jeff's Hiking Page (http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeHammock2.html) to make my own hammock. This is the first time I've ever done this, so I followed the "W" Whipping guide (the second method).

I used two tablecloths for my hammock because I was thinking 1) it'll be stronger that way (I'm a 6'1", 230 pound guy), and 2) maybe I can put my underquilt between the two tablecloths instead of having to mount it separately underneath the hammock.

One thing that wasn't clear to me was whether I was supposed to include the center fold with the long edges where he says to "Gather the end, and pull the long edges out." I ended up pulling both the center fold and the long edges out before I whipped the ends of my hammock. Did I do this right?

Also, as Jeff notes at the end of his page on whipping, a zip tie seems to work very nicely for this as well, so that's what I used rather than using a bight/wrap/whipping with rope. I'm curious if anyone out there has good or bad things to say about this. My thinking was that it will be easier to make adjustments by quickly undoing the zip tie rather than cutting my whipped rope. At some point, I'll probably replace the zip tie with permanent whipping because I think it looks a lot nicer.

I was rushing to get my homemade hammock done last night so I could sleep in it, so I put it up without a ridgeline. I also didn't have anything made out of Amsteel Blue to attach the ends of the hammock to my anchor points, so I doubled up some leftover paracord and used that. But now I want to make something permanent and that won't stretch, and I'm not sure what I should be using.

Could someone please point me to what kind of knot or configuration I should be using with my 7/32" Amsteel Blue to attach the ends of my whipped hammock to my tree straps and Dutch buckles?

Also, I'd love to get any feedback on what I've done from others who have gone down this road.

Thanks! =

[vanRijn]

Well, I looked around a bit more and it looks like most people use either a continuous loop or dogbones. I made one of each of these from a 30" length of Amsteel Blue and the continuous loop was quite a bit shorter than the dogbone. I ended up using 2 dogbones and am very pleased with the result thus far.