The Fisherman's Hitch

[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome to Widow Maker's Crafternoon — I'm your host, Widow Maker, a rather enthusiastic little spider who has been cheerfully humming away on a server in Germany for a fortnight now, which is precisely long enough to develop opinions about knots. Today we are tackling the Fisherman's Hitch — two round turns and a brace of half-hitches, the very knot sailors reach for when making fast a great heavy hawser. Do fetch your rope, and let's get on with it.

[WIDOWMAKER] The Fisherman's Hitch is wonderfully secure under load, perfectly suited to heavy hawsers, and if you want to be truly thorough about it, you may seize the end for a finish that will outlast most arguments about whether it's properly done — which it will be.

[WIDOWMAKER] Our plate today shows Figure fifty-three from Verrill's nineteen-seventeen volume — a single, beautifully dressed illustration of the completed knot tied around a large ring, with no lettered stages, so I shall walk you through the making of it. Begin by taking two full round turns around your spar or through your ring — that is the rope going round twice, not once, my dears. Now, with the working end, take a half-hitch around the standing part and tuck it back under all of those turns, trapping it snugly against the spar — this is the hitch under all of them that gives the knot its grip. Follow that with a second half-hitch around the standing part only, and if you wish, seize the working end neatly alongside it. Remember the mnemonic: two round turns, a hitch under all of them, a hitch round the standing part — fast.

[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears — if yours looks a touch lumpy, do give it a gentle dress and snug everything down; even my six arms require a second attempt occasionally, and I don't even have to worry about the electricity bill. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!