Weekend plans?

[Cannibal]

My weekend sock was both a success and a failure!

The breathable strip helped a lot with that 'fresh-air' feeling/desire. I put button holes where the Warbonnet tie-outs need to be, which kept the sock off of the hammock and gives me that extra air space. Very happy with my new design, but ended up starting from scratch.

I reversed EVERY SINGLE SEAM (wrong side out) and 'painted myself into a corner' when I sewed the wrong end shut. Ooops! But, since it was just a proof of concept design, my feelings weren't hurt too badly. I ended up just stuffing the hammock into the zippered mouth of the sock and feeding the ends thru the small opening at the end.

Learned that lesson, learned to pay more attention to my seams, where to best place the button holes (couple of extra holes in the sock as I learned), and learned to send the 3 year old to see a movie with her Mom next time I'm sewing.

A few final tweaks and I'll be ready to make a nice final lightweight version. All in all, a good weekend of learning and only minimal blood loss.

[NCPatrick]

Cool beans. Yep, babysitting and sewing projects do not mix, imo. Unless you want to demonstrate to your child some SERIOUS frustration/anger management techniques, which you may or may not possess...

Glad you're happy with the successful tests!

[JayS]

Had no weekend plans at the start of the weekend but… the new Hennessy wanted to be tested. Who was I to say no? My son (11), daughter (13) and I managed to hang an Eno, a Travel Hammock, and the Hennessy on Saturday night when the low was 31 degrees. Where we live in New Jersey, there’s a fair amount of light pollution so I couldn’t read the sky well just after dark. My daughter and I checked the weather forecast to see if we needed the tarps. Zero percent chance of precipitation until late the Sunday morning. Satisfied, we walked back outside to a steady rain! The tarps went up.

We did well except my daughter got cold around 3:30 and went inside. I think that was because she loosened her sleeping bag "pod" to read and didn't tighten it again. My son decided to follow since he had to “use the facilities” anyway. I used a tree as a shield (not a target) and stayed out until after daybreak.

The Hennessy was a bit of a challenge. I used a RayWay alpine version quilt for an underquilt with a lightweight bungee on the foot end so the quilt could be moved to enter and then would rebound. That worked well. But the quilt effectively stopped one of the pull out lines from functioning so the hammock was a bit tight around the shoulders and it was hard to get comfortable. Once I did find the right spot, I slept warm with a 20 degree synthetic bag opened as a top quilt. It was also frustrating not to be able to reach out and pull the quilt up the side of the hammock but I guess I should have had more suspension points to deal with this. Had to switch from the regular tarp to the larger tarp that came with the Hennessy as the sides of the quilt were getting damp.

Overall, a good night learning. And, for the first time, the kids actually helped a lot with the set up and take down! They might actually make good hangers!

[Iafte]

I made a test hammock sock this weekend that turned out just ok. Not re-checking the directions was my downfall. Going out for a weekend trip the same weekend as the gettogether but can't make it to VA.