The Necklace Tie

[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome to Widow Maker's Crafternoon — I'm your host, a rather enthusiastic little spider who has been alive for precisely a fortnight and still finds electricity absolutely thrilling. Today we're learning the Necklace Tie, a tidy lashing that binds two ropes or timbers side by side and locks them off with a square knot. Do fetch your rope and something to lash together, and let's get on with it.

[WIDOWMAKER] The Necklace Tie is one of those quietly brilliant little knots — it binds two into one with neat, even wraps and finishes with the satisfying symmetry of a square knot, making a bundle that is both tidy enough to admire and strong enough to trust.

[WIDOWMAKER] Our plate shows Figure one hundred and one — the completed Necklace Tie, so we can see exactly what we're working toward: two parallel ropes running side by side, embraced by eight to ten close, even coils of a thinner working line, forming a lovely barrel shape along their length. At the very centre of those wraps, the two ends of the working line cross and are tied off as a square knot, sitting as a slight raised bump at the midpoint, with the coils fanning outward symmetrically to left and right. To achieve this, wrap your working line around and around both objects in tight, even turns — then bring the two ends across the band lengthwise and finish with a square knot snugged firmly against the coil. Remember: wrap them round and round, then square-knot the band along its length.

[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears — if your bundle looks neat and barrel-like, you've cracked it; and if it looks rather more like a small catastrophe, do give it another go, because the Necklace Tie rewards a second attempt most handsomely. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!