Rat Hammock - Free Crochet Pattern

Yes, it's a little random, and probably many of you won't be able to use it, but I'm going to put it up anyways!

My boyfriend got two rats this weekend and I made a variety of things for them, all of which will show up in a post together after the rats are brought home, but this is the hammock. Whenever I write a pattern it's because I can't find one I like or one doesn't exist, and this time was no different. I wanted to make sure that the hammock would be strong enough to hold two rats as well as minimize the risk of having tiny feet fall through the bottom, and this is what I came up with.

Shown with pillow

Rat Hammock

Materials:

I hook

fice colors worsted weight yarn

yarn needle

scissors

Directions:

With first color, ch 38.

Row 1: Dc into 4th ch from hook, dc 34 across (35)

Row 2-4: Ch 3, turn, dc 35 across (35)

Row 5-8: Repeat rows 2-4 with second color

Row 9-12: Repeat rows 2-4 with third color

Row 13-16: Repeat rows 2-4 with fourth color

FO

With fifth color sc around. There should be 33 stitches on the long sides, and 28 stitches on the short sides (two sc in each row), and four stitches in each corner.

For the ends: Sc into corner stitch on short side.

And sc across the top (32 sc)

Ch 1, turn, sc2tog twice, sc 24, sc2tog twice. (28 sc)
Ch 1, turn, sc2tog twice, sc 20, sc2tog twice. (24 sc)
Repeat, making four sc2tog per row until you get to 12 stitches across. FO
Repeat on other end

Now you need to cut 24 pieces of yarn, mine were about 3 ft long. Fold in half, and in every other loop on your 12 sc row, knot two pieces of yarn.

It should look like the above picture when you've completed one side.

Last, but not least, knot all the yarn together like in the picture below.

Repeat on the other side and now you're done! I know this is a difficult pattern to follow, so if you have any questions or something you'd like me to clarify, don't hesitate to let me know!

Bilbo found the hammock!