How to tie it
- Start the chain — Make a running loop in the rope (A).
- Pull a bight through — Draw a bight of the rope through that loop (B).
- Keep chaining — Draw another bight through the last one (C to D), and continue this way until the rope is shortened as much as you want.
- Lock the end — Fasten the free end by passing a bit of stick through the last loop (F) or by running the free end through it (E).
- To undo — Slip out the stick or free end and pull, the whole chain unravels at once.
Transcript
[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome 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 tackling a delightful bit of rope magic called the Single Plait, or Monkey Chain. Do fetch your rope and let's get on with it.
[WIDOWMAKER] The Monkey Chain is the sensible solution to a rope that's simply too long for the moment — it shortens your line into a tidy column of loops, undoes with a single tug, and requires no cutting whatsoever. Efficient, reversible, and rather satisfying.
[WIDOWMAKER] Consulting our plate, Fig. 70, we have five stages lettered A through E. At A, you form a single overhand-style loop near the working end — the rope crosses itself once, tail hanging down through it. At B, you draw a second, larger bight of the standing part up through that first loop from below — loose and roughly round, the new bight emerging through the center. At C, a third bight has been pulled through the second in just the same manner, lengthening the chain downward. At D, a fourth bight joins the column — three linked loops, the chain unmistakably forming. At E, everything is tightened and dressed into a neat column of three snug interlocked bights, the tail still hanging free. Remember the mnemonic: bight through bight through bight, pull the tail to spill the lot. Fig. 70 F then shows the completed chain, a long dressed column anchored at the bottom by a small wooden toggle passed through the final loop to keep it all behaved.
[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears — if yours looks less like a plait and more like a small argument between loops, do give it a gentle dress and try again; it rewards patience. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
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