A Braided and Woven Shepherd's Sling

Materials:
About 100ft of heavy wool yarn.
A note on buying yarn: Most yarn available in stores is for knitting or cocheting, and is only about half the thickness needed for most sling designs. A simple solution is to substitute two strands of knitting yarn for one strand of heavy yarn. It is a little more difficut to keep track of the strands, but I have found it manageable enough, and as long as you braid or weave tightly, it will hardly show.

For this design, the pouch is made before the cords. Start by cutting a length of yarn about 6 feet long and wrap it into a coil with 6 wraps.



Tie the two ends of the yarn together to complete the coil. Try not to make the part of the coil with the knot longer than the other parts. If it is a little longer, you can adjust it by working the slack into the rest of the coil.



Here is the completed coil. It pays to double check to make sure that there are 6 full loops.



With a length of scrap yarn, tie a larks head aroung the coil. This forms a handle for weaving, and keeps the coil from coming undone.



Since there are 6 coils, there are a total of 12 srtand in the bundle. These 12 will form the warp for weaving the pouch. Divide them into 3 groups of 4 strands each. Onto one of the outside groups, use a clove hitch to tie on a length of yarn to form the weft. It should be between 2 and 3 yards in length.



Weave the weft back and forth, through the three groups of warp yarn.



Make sure to push the weaving tightly together towards the end of the warp.



A needle is useful for the weaving.



Continue weaving for about 3/4 of an inch.



The goups of 4 warps are now split into 6 groups of 2 strands. The first few rows of weaving after the splits are made are a little difficult to keep even, so pay extra attention to this part of the weaving.



Weave for another 3/4 of an inch.



Now it is time for the second split. Divide the 6 groups into 12 single strands. Again, this part will take some extra care, but after 3 or 4 rows of 12 warps, the going gets easier.



Probably during this middle potion of the pouch is where you will run out of weft, and tou will need to add in a new piece of yarn. Try to estimate whether you are more or less than halfway through the pouch, and cut the new piece of yarn long enough so that you won't have to add in any more. Once the new pice is cut, unravel an fray the end of the old weft, and one end of the new one.



Overlap the frayed ends and twist them together firmly. Make sure to twist in the same direction that the yarn twist in. When weaving this spliced portion into the pouch, you may need to hold tight to the yarn so that it doesn't untwist. If you keep the twist tight as you weave it in, you will hardly notice the splice in the finished pouch.



Continue weaving through all 12 strands until the unowoven section is about 1/4 of an inch longer than the length of the 3 and 6 warp sections combined, about 1 3/4 inches.



Regroup the 12 strands back into 6 groups of 2, and weave for the same length as the first 6 warp section.



Now go back to 3 groups of 4 warps, and weave till the woven portion of the pouch is symetrical. Tie the weft off with a clove hitch, but don't trim off the end yet.



Here the weaving is completed. Note that the unwoven portion at the end of the pouch is longer than the part of the coil that is at the begining of the weaving. This asymetry will be changed soon.



Now is the time to cut the yarn for the braided cords. You will need 8 pieces of yarn each about 7-8 ft. long. Thread four of them onto your needle and bring them through the loops at the end of the weaving. Make sure to go through the middle of the loops, with six warps on either side. Pull the yarn halfway through, so that the middle of the yarn is at the coil.



At this point, it is time to shift the weaving so that it is centered between the ends. Simply hold the weaving in one hand, and push potions of it around with the other.



Once you have the weaving adjusted, undo the larks head at the beginning of the weaving, but take care not to pull the loop out of the coil. The loop is a handy way of threading the braid strands through the coil. Put the remaining 4 braid strands through the loop, and pull them through the coils as you pull out the loop.



Now find where you finished weaving, take the end of the weft yarn, and using a needle, thread it back through the weaving to secure it. once this is finished, trim of the end.



Here is the woven pouch with the braid yarns attached. Make sure that the braid strands are halfway though the pouch, so that when you bring together the eight ends of the braid yarns on one side of the pouch, they are all even. You are now ready to start braiding.



Grouping the eight strands into groups of two, braid them together using a four strand round braid.



Keep braiding until the cord is the desired length, but make sure to leave at least 6 in. of yarn for the finger loop. To make the finger loop, you will need to split the braid into two smaller four strand braids, each with only one yarn per strand. To do this, simply drop half of the strands off to the side, and coninue with the smaller braid.



Once the first side of the loop is the desired length, go back and braid the other side to match.



Now combine the strands back into groups of two, and braid for about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch.



Secure the ends of the braid by tying a tight constrictor knot.



Now go back to the other side of the pouch and braid the release cord. It is braided in the same manner as the retension cord, except that when you get to the end, all you need to do is tie an overhand knot, instead of making a split loop.



The ends of the braids can be frayed for decoration, if desired.



Here you can see the completed sling:

Copyright 2009 by Timothy Potter