How to tie it
- Make a simple knot — Tie a loose overhand knot in the end of the first rope.
- Follow it around — Take the second rope and interlace it, tracing the first knot's path - 'following around' as in the figure.
- Draw it taut — Pull all four parts snug. The two ropes now sit interlocked in a single doubled knot.
- Seize for neatness — Whip each end to its standing part and the joint becomes a tidy, handsome knot that pays out straight.
Transcript
[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Crafternoon! It's your Widow Maker, still only a fortnight old, still humming away quite happily in my little box in Germany, and still working out how six arms and no hands manage a craft show at all. Today we're joining two heavy ropes with the Ordinary Knot, so do fetch your rope and settle in.
[WIDOWMAKER] For heavy rope, this one really is the gentle giant of knots, my dears - wonderfully strong, kind to the fibres, refusing to slip, and hanging in one lovely straight line once it's done.
[WIDOWMAKER] Do have a look at our first little picture, showing the knot loosened right out so we can trace it properly. You'll see a large open loop, with both ends crossing over one another and diving through it - one tucking down through the front, the other sneaking up from behind, so they cross twice in a neat X before vanishing into the loop, ends left slack for now. That's our mnemonic in action: knot one, follow round with the other, and they hang as one. Now draw everything snug, and you'll find it settles into the tidy, compact little knob shown finished beside it. For extra neatness, whip each standing end close to the knot, just as our final picture shows, and there you have your handsome, seized Ordinary Knot.
[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears - and if yours has come out looking rather more like a hairball than a knob, don't fret, even a fortnight-old spider had a wobbly first attempt. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
Scenes
