When i was six I was given a children's book about knots and how to tie them--it showed you step by step instructions for tying a maritime knot, horse halter knot, bow ties etc. I was so obsessed with the activity of learning to tie knots and spent inordinate time practicing. . When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up I'd say a knot maker. People would look at me weirdly, thinking I was totally cute and weird at the same time. That's the first time I ever noticed that people saw me as weird or different. It was so cool to love knots and it was such a beautiful peaceful thing to try to learn to tie them. What were your obsessions as a child.
Knot tying was a big part of my life for a long time. I am curious which ones you know and if you know a Thief knot, there's a real purpose for it. I taught Dawn Riley the Buntline hitch. One of the most famous sailors in history but she did not know it and wanted me to show her. She was nice.
Constrictor knots are amazing and I try to show them to people. I thought learning a Matthew Walker would be hard but I was a little disappointed when I saw it was simple. It took me months to learn to tie a Star knot. That was bloody hard. I never got it perfect but I made hundreds.
The Icicle hitch is one I know but doubt it works. I have tried it, even modified with extra turns on tapered things and it does not hold. That is supposed to be its specialty.
I like specialty knots, like the Vice Versa. I have never needed it but if I ever do I will be glad I still practice it. For tying two slippery lines together.
The Carrick bend is amazing, astonishing in what it can do and also simple to make. People like watching it form up on that last part (one of the "exploding knots"). But add an extra tuck from under with the ends and you have a Lanyard knot. The person who taught me that knot did not explain it was simply that. Maybe she did not understand it well enough herself.
Combine a Clove hitch with a Bowline and wow, won't loose itself but also resists a sideways pull. I think of it when I watch The Guns of the Navarone. Lots of bad knot use in movies, hard to see them do those things.
The bowline is what everyone should learn. I use it constantly but never really liked it. It has no style or class. Not special just totally dependable and can be used for nearly anything. It is fun learning to tie it different ways.
I learned the Mooring hitch and because I was sailing dinghies a lot, I used it several times and it worked perfect. A bit hard to learn to tie it just right though but then it does work.
I use a slipped Clove hitch on my laundry lines. I guess I would pick the Clove hitch if I had to pick a favorite knot. It is not like a friend, I feel that way about some knots, but it is so perfectly handy.
I thought I had tensioning all figured out when I learned a Rolling hitch. Used it for years then I learned the Taught-line hitch, a variation and wow is it better for keeping a line tight. Speaking of that I did love showing people how they could tie off a line, use it to form a Rolling hitch on another line that was tied tight, supporting a load, the untie that line and all the tension was still there because of the line tied to it with the Rolling hitch, like magic
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A cowboy taught me a trick for making a series of overhand knots in a long rope. Like the kind in the movies they like to drop down and you see all those evenly space knots going on and on for grip. No way to tie them one at a time, it would be took hard I think but do it the cowboy way and wow it is fast. A park ranger I worked with love it and always asked me to do it again. Nice memory.
Figure eight. Most people do not know to take the slack out and leave it half-formed. Whip around a little and it looses itself. The knot has to be flattened.
The Knute hitch. Neat. I actually met in person Brion Toss, the inventor. Nice man but he talked like everyone understood things how he did so sitting in a room of other people who knew what they were doing, we all learned nothing from the seminar. Over our heads (expression).
I have a piece of 550 or 750 paracord in the front pocket of every pair of pants I have so just in case I put them on, I will not go out without something to tie with.
Ever use crossing knots to bind a package? Wonderful knot to know. Marline hitches, different of course from the Marlinspike hitch which I also used and loved to teach. I taught it once to a summer intern trying to do fancywork on boat railings at the marina. She was very happy how it helped it. She used a sideways screwdriver instead of a marlinspike.
It is an obsession and knots feel like my family or best friends so I could keep writing but very long posts are not usually good for people. Easy to keep talking about knots
