I like 'em too. way  hubert

This is my latest sling. 6 strands hemp cord with acrylic wool for the cracker.

new sling, 25' inch rockman made from jute. it's a little heavy but slings nicely.

PS there are a few smudge marks on the desk that i put the sling on during the picture, but because of the light it looks like some sort of marker writing

that's a very nice sling whipartist. how is the pouch made? is it a weave using a pattern or another technique. same goes for the way to cord are braided.

Glad you like it.  I'm really enjoying it.  It took me about 30 hours of work but it was mostly done while just watching movies in the evening or just relaxing around the house.  I used a traditional 16 strand Peruvian braid for the cords.  It's relatively easy to do as Pervuian braids go, and looks nice and bold in the natural wool colors.  This style of braid is also used in Tibet.  I'd like to do some 32 strand braids for the cords someday in the future, and do some more complex patterns, but I would need much finer yarn to work with to keep the cord size minimal.  I like the cords and cradle to be minimal to reduce drag during use.  

The cradle is done with a knotting technique using the same 16 strands.  It's a great technique for turing just a few strands into a wide cradle.  It's originally from Guatemala I undestand.  I like it.  It looks good, is solid and sturdy, and allows for multiple patterns. 

Traditional Peruvian slings need extra warps in the cradle in order to thicken them up, and then those are dropped part way down the release cord.  I don't like having to do that because it's difficult to do that drop smoothly and it's hard to make woven cradles come out with the complexity of patterns and tightness of a knotted cradle.  The challenge with the knotting technique isn't the knotting but in figuring out how to take the two 8 strand cradle sections and join them together in a way that is smooth, sturdy, and reduces the width of the split cradle down quickly into something small enough so that the cords can emerge smoothly from it.  This is the first time I've figured out how to do it this well, and it would be beyond me to explain how exactly.  Basically I join the two halves of the cradle together and instantly split the 16 strands into 3 sections.  On section is a core and the other two sections join together to become a flattened knotted tube which surrounds the core.  In this example I kept this part of the cradle white on the outside and black on the inside, which provides bold contrast.  I'm proud of this final solution as it's taken me many attempts and experiments to work out, and it's working great.  I'll use it from now on, on my slings.  The Peruvian braids emerge seamlessly from the ends of the cradle with this technique.  You can see earlier examples of my work in the gallery here on the main web site, when I was still trying to work out how to use knotting to best advantage in a cradle. 

Another thing I do on these slings is put a little Elmer's glue on the inside of the cradle and the first few inches of the retention cord.  This hardens the cradle up a little and reduces the wear on the cradle and retention cord incredibly well.  Even as the cradles do wear a little, they hold together instead of getting fluffy, because the glue unifies the fibers of the yarn.  It wouldn't be worth it to do this much work on a sling and then wear it out in just a few weeks of use. 

I did the retention cords so that the spirals mirror each-other between the cords.  It looks cool when they are held together.

Many evenings after work I go out once the sun gets low in the sky, and sling at some tin cans I've placed on the hill out in front of my house.  I sling until it's too dark to see them anymore.  I'm having a ton of fun and trying to get some more serious accuracy going.  It's great to have something that gets you outdoors and gets your blood flowing.  Last Thursday I struck a tree trunk dead center from about 80 yards away, on the first throw.  My friend who was with me asked me to do it again and I refused.  That was one of the nicest throws I've done in my life!  Stop while you're ahead!!      

C:\Users\Benjamin\Desktop\Sling2.jpg

Benjamin  

That's a beauty Whipartist. Anyone would be proud to own it.

Really a very nice Sling.
One sees such a thing not often.
I also work very much with pleasure with this pattern.
One knows the pattern also from England. However, it is differently produced a little bit.