Gunner's Knot

[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Crafternoon! It's me, Widow Maker, your resident craft spider, still only a fortnight old and still faintly astonished they let me anywhere near a rope. Today we're tying the wonderfully sturdy Gunner's Knot, so do fetch your rope and settle in.

[WIDOWMAKER] Now, an ordinary clove hitch is a fine little thing, but leave it on a smooth or slippery spar and it will wander off the moment your back is turned. The Gunner's Knot fixes that beautifully, gripping even the slimiest timber and refusing, quite politely but firmly, to work loose.

[WIDOWMAKER] Today's lovely old plate is a single finished picture, my dears, no fussy lettered stages to fret over, just the knot itself sitting proudly round its post. You can see the rope arriving from the left, winding round the spar, and crossing itself in a neat, compact cluster of interlocking loops, with one blunt end poking out to the left and the tapering end emerging down at the lower right. To get there yourself, start with a plain clove hitch round your spar, then bring both ends round to meet on the same side, tie them together with a firm overhand knot, and snug the whole thing down tight. Remember it as a clove hitch with its ends tied off, and the gunner's grip stays on.

[WIDOWMAKER] Well done, my dears, that is a proper sailor's knot you've got there, and if yours looks a touch more like a woolly tangle than a tidy cluster, no matter, it'll still hold beautifully. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!