So, here it comes, my first tutorial on knots, slings and anything else... Please don't hit me hard

1. Get some cord, I prefer 1.5-2mm nylon, 4 pieces - each around your desired sling length, but add some (maybe a foot or two) for working ends and finger loop and 5th for pouch (~1-1.5m but you shouldn't count on me because some like shorter pouches).

2. Braid like this or any style you like (BTW the startup arrange of colors will give you different pattern - if you arrange different colours on each side you'll get spiral, if same - stripes):





3. When you've got enough length to make a loop arrange all nicely, and for few moves braid with 8 strands, then just leave the short ones alone and continue as before (personally I like splicing in this place because I can arrange strands to look neat and tension each separately to give smooth surface with no bumps and/or wrinkles):




4. When you reach point where your pouch should begin, tie a wall knot:




5. Arrange these 4 pouch strands like this:




6. Tie another wall knot and proceed braiding till you get enough length for release cord (at the very end I braid with a loop on my finger and the sling around something so I don't miss the point where to stop)




7. Release knot... Tie anything you like, but I prefer Matthew Walker with a wall knot under it to arrange strands for MW nicely:




8. THE POUCH... I hope the pics ar self explanatory, if not, go for Turks Head instructions and come back when you've got it right





9. While going to another side of pouch try to keep [Under 1, Over 1] pattern, otherwise it may get quiet messy:




10. When done with weaving - start doubling (or even tripling, but I don't recommend that, unless you got thick or hard rope or made your pouch quiet tight):




11. While doubling, start following other 4 cords first, and follow the 5th cord itself when all other are already doubled. When you are done with that just tie a reef knot, tighten it well and fuse the ends as close to the knot as possible without burning the knot itself, and leave small beads of molten plastic so it won't get undone (I wait a till they cool a bit and then tap them to stick to the knot).
Cut and fuse like that all other ends and hooray, the sling is finished (and my tutorial too ):

Oops... a mistake ... There is different number of bights (waves) on each side of pouch split...



Hehe... Now I've got the shortest sling  of all And you know what, it is good not only for slinging

My brothers girl
It wasn't easy to make her pose with sling, but somehow she agreed

Valentine's day is coming up!

Thanks Justknot.  The instructions are really clear! Good job!

Praise from Willeke on knot-tying is to be especially valued.

Very good job.

Tint wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2007 at 6:41pm:



Very good job,
If my wife will actually wear it I'm thinking about making her one in her favorite colors for valentines day and a few days later our 10th wedding anniversary.
Another possible use it looks like you could use it as a helmet chinstrap for those of us into historical combat reenactment

Marc Adkins

Nils, I think is better.

Willeke

bigkahuna wrote on Feb 4^th, 2007 at 1:47pm:


The loss due the braid is not big, just around 10-15%, + add some to work with - maybe a foot...
For a sling around 75cm (folded) I took pieces of cord each 2 meters (except for pouch, which I think was maybe around 1.2m)
Good luck

I just found this lurking in an old stash of bookmarks. I think it deserves to be seen again