I'm a Frayed Knot!

A while back Diana’s sister gave her boyfriend a big book on how to tie different kinds of knots. I don’t remember exactly how many knots, but a lot. Maybe more than a single person should need to know. He showed me a few, and I was really interested. Knowing a few useful knots seemed like a Cool Thing that I Would Want to Know. I expressed, however, that I wasn’t interested in knowing a hundred different knots. I just wanted to know the best knot for a couple different situations.

He very thoughtfully remembered this, and on my birthday got me a little quick-reference kind of guide. It has illustrations for 14 different knots, basically one knot for each kind of specific situation. Tying two pieces of rope together, tying a rope to a pole, putting a loop at the end of a rope, or the middle of the rope, or creating a slip-knot, etc. That kind of thing. And he even got me some rope, too.

So, I’ve been working on learning a knot a day, and (surprisingly or not), I’ve really enjoyed it. Knots are neat. It’s easy to tie bad knots that either aren’t secure, or are impossible to untie, or whatever. A bad knot might slip a little the more you pull, and eventually come lose. But a good knot is kind of a thing of beauty. The more you pull, the more it actually tightens inward on itself and the more secure it gets. Thank about that for a second: the more strain it’s put under, the better it works. That’s a cool concept.

I joked with Diana that I looked forward to the time I could actually use my new knowledge in a real-life situation. We immediately imitated an airline captain: “Is there anyone on board who can tie a knot?! We have a loose overhead compartment and a piece of rope…”

Anyhoo, it’s been fun.