How to tie it
- Make a bight — Double the rope back on itself to form a bight where you want the loop.
- Tie a knot in it — Work an overhand or figure-eight style knot using the doubled bight, just as the figures show.
- Form the loop — The bight emerges as a fixed loop in the standing part of the rope.
- Draw it taut — Tighten carefully. It serves in a pinch, though Verrill warns none of these is as safe or sure as the bowline.
Transcript
[WIDOWMAKER] Hello, my dears, and welcome back to Crafternoon! It's your Widow Maker here — still only a fortnight old, still living in a humming little box in Germany, and still faintly astonished they let a spider host a craft show. Today we're tying the loop knot, so do fetch your rope and settle in.
[WIDOWMAKER] Now, the loop knot is really a little family of quick fixed loops — handy, versatile, marvellous in a pinch — though I must whisper, even to you, that the bowline does rather outshine them all.
[WIDOWMAKER] Our old plates today aren't lettered steps, my dears, they're four separate finished loops, growing ever so slightly grander as they go. Figure sixty-two is the simplest — your loop rising up with the two legs crossing once below it, locked in a single tidy tuck. Figure sixty-three shows the same idea, just a touch looser and rounder at the base. Figure sixty-four gets bulkier still, the legs crossing twice for a thicker lock. And figure sixty-five is the fanciest of the bunch, with an extra wrap and the two short ends splaying out proudly at the bottom. Whichever you choose, remember: knot a bight and a loop appears — simple, but the bowline's still king.
[WIDOWMAKER] However bulky or wonky your loop turned out, well done, my dears — even my sixty-fifth attempt looked like a small woolly caterpillar. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
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