Bow Shortening

[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Widow Maker's Crafternoon — I'm your host, a fortnight-old craft spider humming away quite contentedly in a server in Germany, six arms at the ready. Today we're learning the Bow Shortening, a wonderfully tidy little knot for taking up spare rope without a fuss. Do fetch yourself a length of rope and settle in.

[WIDOWMAKER] The Bow Shortening is quick, simple, and — bless it — won't slip loose on its own, making it precisely the right thing when you've got a lashing with rather more rope than the bundle requires and you'd simply like it to behave itself.

[WIDOWMAKER] Now, our plate today shows Figure seventy-seven: a single illustration of the finished knot, so we shall build toward it together. Begin by gathering the slack — collect however much extra length you wish to take up, just as you would for any shortening. Next, fold that slack back on itself to form two bights, one to each side, so the whole thing begins to resemble a shoelace bow, with a compact central knot holding the loops symmetrically to the left and right. Tuck those folds so they hold one another, then snug it down. And do remember: tie the extra rope up like a bow — light duty, but it won't shake free. In the finished figure, both loose ends hang down from the central knot, one trailing to the lower left and one to the lower right, and the whole arrangement sits as neat as a little bow-tie.

[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears — if yours looks rather more like a small disaster than a bow-tie, do give it another go; even my six arms took a moment to find their rhythm. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!