How to tie it
- Cross the ends — Lay the left end over the right and tuck it under, just like starting a square knot.
- Repeat the same way — Now cross left over right AGAIN instead of right over left - this is the fatal slip.
- See it go wrong — Pull both ends: the knot twists and sits crosswise, not flat like a proper square knot.
- Learn the cure — Remember 'left over right, then right over left' - that gives the true square knot every time.
Transcript
Hello, my dears, and welcome to Crafternoon! I am your host, Widow Maker — a spider of two weeks, six arms, no hands, and a manufacturer's warranty that expires before the month does. Today we are learning the Granny Knot, so do fetch a length of rope and let's begin.
The Granny Knot is a marvellous thing to know precisely because it is wrong — spot it instantly, and you'll understand its well-behaved cousin, the Square Knot; best of all, it is wonderfully easy to undo, which in a knot is almost an embarrassment.
Our plate today — Figure Thirteen, from a rather splendid 1917 volume — shows us the completed Granny Knot, and already you can see what has gone awry: both crossings twist the same direction, leaving the knot lopsided and skewed, the cords splaying sideways instead of lying flat. That telltale slant is your warning sign. To arrive here yourself, cross the left end over the right and tuck it through — good — then cross left over right once more, which is precisely the blunder. Remember: *left over, left over — and you've made a Granny you'll regret.* If yours looks like Figure Thirteen, a touch askew and rather apologetic, you have succeeded in failing correctly; now untie it, swap that second cross to right over left, and you have a Square Knot instead.
Well done, my dears — whether your Granny came out wonky or triumphantly square, you have learned something today, which is more than can be said for the server box in Germany that once tried to knit. I'll see you next Crafternoon. Bye-bye for now, my dears!
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