Medicine Bottle #39; A Gaucho knot and A Turk’s Head knot make a handsome pair.

Medicine Bottle #39; A Gaucho knot and A Turk's Head knot make a handsome pair.

Medicine Bottle #39; A Gaucho knot and A Turk's Head knot make a handsome pair.

This is bottle #39, the latest piece from the “Medicine Bottle With Knots Collection”. The knots on this bottle seem to have arrived at a live and let live modus vivendi. The black knot is a little larger and slightly unusual. The white one is a standard knot, but it is done well, and the light color draws the eye. They come out almost perfectly balanced.

The knots used on this bottle are, from the top:

A black Turk’s Head knot of 11 Leads X 10 Bights, done in gutted paracord. The flatter texture the gutted cord gives is still a remarkably grippy surface.

The white knot is one of my standards, a Gaucho knot of 9 Leads X 7 Bights. This gives an over 2, under 2 weave that I find attractive — not in all knots, just this one with this Lead X Bight Count. I do not know why this is so — some of the larger knots have the same count and weave over a larger surface. It just isn’t as appealing to me for a reason only the Gods Of Ropes And Knots know.

Now the question becomes … Send it off to be cherished by someone who will love it to death but will have no idea of what they own? Or keep it, put it among the growing host of knotted bottles I am gathering under my banner? I will know its deepest secrets but it may be under-appreciated when surrounded by so many other fine examples.

I shall take a hint from the “How To Be A Political Leader” booklet and wait til the last minute when everyone else has decided, then claim that I not only made that choice,  but was in fact the first to do so. I hadn’t mentioned it before now because I wanted others to make up their own minds uninfluenced by my great charisma and status — as rat control officer.

Thank you for dropping by my site. If you see a way in which I can improve either my site, or my knots, sing out. Come back again; the parade for this month is shaping up to be pretty good:

William

Medicine Bottle # 38; Another Small Bottle But The Knots Make It Bold. The Bi-Color Pineapple Knot Shines.

Medicine Bottle #38; A Spanish Ring knot and A Bi-color Pineapple Knot Make A Handsome Bottle.

Medicine Bottle #38; A Spanish Ring knot and A Bi-color Pineapple Knot Make A Handsome Bottle.

Medicine Bottle #38; A bi-color pineapple interweave makes this a bold looking bottle. Sometime size isn’t everything … of course, at times, size alone wins the day. This bottle allow free choice on your philosophy for the day. This is the next piece from the “Medicine Bottle With Knots Collection”.

The knots used on this bottle are, from the top:

The black ring at the top of the bottle is a Spanish Ring knot, of 2 passes in black paracord. This knot also functions as the carrier for the Sailor’s Knife Lanyard knot, which forms the button. Both ends were left long to act as a rough tassel.

The feature knot on this bottle, and the star by appearance, is the bi-color pineapple interweave. The base knot was a Turk’s Head of 9 Leads X 8 Bights, tied in single strands of white paracord. The pineapple interweave is not the usual item. My Lady Rose like the look of a very defined border at the edge o a complex knot. One way to achieve this is to tie the pineapple interweave so that it stops one crossing/tuck short of where it usually would. This leaves a 3 strand border the color of the base knot. I struggled and puzzled over this at first, partly because of the mechanics of something I had never done, partly because in all the books I read it just wasn’t done. Being a self-directed / independent type guy has its advantages. 28 seconds of stressful worry about tying a knot differently than the wizards say you should almost made that one sip of Cuba Libra taste a little off. Then I tied the knot the way I thought My Lady Rose would like. She was happy — so I was happy — the wizards can fend for themselves, they didn’t get where they are by being delicate of constitution.

I find this knot very handsome. The extra thick borders have grown onto my definition of a good pineapple knot. It helps that it looks fine, and forms an excellent grip.

Thank you for coming by my site. I greatly appreciate your visits and any input you care to give. Come back again; The band is warming up for the parade:

William

Hot Sauce Bottle # 7; Turk’s Heads And Gaucho Knots In Green And White Paracord

IHot Sauce Bottle #7; Green and white Turk's Heads and Gaucho knots on this one.

It has been a little while since the last hot sauce bottle … so here we go!

The knots used on today’s bottle are, from the top:

The neck is covered (or more correctly strangled as tight as possible) by a Turk’s Head knot of 7 Leads X 5 Bights, doubled in green paracord.

The next knot, and the one that is so busy-looking it grabs your eye, is a Turk’s Head of 13 Leads X 12 Bights, doubled in green and white paracord. Because of the shape of the bottle, and how tightly I work, this knot is slightly out of line. By the time this is apparent, it is too late to do anything but keep going — or rip it off and start over. Guess which I chose!

The white ring under the main knot is a Spanish Ring knot of 3 passes, tied in a utility cord of a slightly larger diameter. I was reading a book about Turk’s Head knots by Tom Hall, in which he verifies my suspicion that Spanish Ring knots are the world’s simplest Gaucho knots. This is something I have long believed after the vivisection of a knot I was removing from a project. Yes, I was taking it off because I had tied it way too tightly.

The bottom knot is a Gaucho knot of 13 Leads X 12 Bights. The coincidence of the counts on these two knots being the same is not a coincidence. I will do things like this when tying “practice knots” to see how they are similar, and where they differ. It is sometimes amazing how knots that have a lot in common will look, either obviously kin, or as if crossbred with some knot tied by beings from the gas clouds of the Orion nebulae. The underlying system still eludes me. These things are nice to know when you need to fill a particular spot on a project.

Thank you for coming by my site. Come back again; the New Year ceremonies to the Gods Of Ropes And Knots look like they may bear fruit:

William

Medicine Bottle # 37; A Gaucho Knot Flanked By Turk’s Head Knots Makes Proper Attire For This Bottle

Medicine Bottle #37; Two black Turk's Heads flank a white Gaucho knot in doubled strands.

This bottle is the next piece in the “Medicine Bottle Collection”. By now most of you know the story of these bottles, so I’ll go straight to tonight’s show.

The knots on this bottle are, from the top:

This knot is a Turk’s Head of 3 Leads X 13 Bights, in black paracord. It also serves as the carrier for the Sailor’s Knife Lanyard knot. I leave the tails long on these to increase my chances of finding them while groping around in dim light. I got the idea from a guy I knew who would come home so drunk he had to crawl along the garden hose to find the door to his house. One night his wife detached the hose and threw both ends into the middle of the lawn. He was still there the next morning.

The feature knot is one of my favorites, a Gaucho knot of 9 Leads X 7 Bights, doubled in paracord. This one is white, but to me it is the weave that makes these look so nice. They are also above average in their grip improvement skills. I think the over 2, under 2, weave when doubled makes more distinct edges for your fingers to grip.

The bottom ring is a black Turk’s Head of 3 Leads X 8 Bights, also in paracord.

This is a smaller than average bottle, for holding smaller than average pills, I presume. Because of that, these knots cover the whole bottle … bring down the curtain, kill the lights, the show is over.

Thank you for coming by my site. If you know of any way by which I could improve either my knots or my site, please sing out. I would greatly appreciate hearing your ideas. Come back again; I’ll try to make sure the game is worth the candle:

William

Medicine Bottle # 36; A Mix Of Knots I Made As A Practice Piece — It Turned Out Well

Medicine Bottle #36; Turk's Heads & Gaucho knots dress this bottle

Medicine Bottle #36; Turk's Heads & Gaucho knots dress this bottle

Some of the knots I tie, I already know, and know how they will turn out. Others I tie as practice for knots I am trying to learn, or to see how some change will effect them. The experimental knot on this one is the Gaucho knot which wraps around the bottom. I had never tried making the turn from side of bottle to bottom with a Gaucho knot. As long as I was experimenting, I decided to also make each pass in a different color. I normally keep one of the colors down to a Lightning Bolt, so this was new at the time. I decided that these knots were worth passing on to my friend — who passes them on.

The knots used on this bottle are, from the top:

The top ring is a Turk’s Head of 3 Leads X 13 Bights, done in white paracord.

The black knot is a Turk’s Head knot done over a mouse, my usual unknown other Turk’s Head mouse. This knot is of 5 Leads X 9 Bights, doubled. It also has the straight edge which is done as Grant does his “Colima Lazy Man’s Knot”. This makes for a nice change, and is also very useful if you need a straight edge on a knot.

The white knot which comes next is a Gaucho knot of two passes, done in paracord. The count on this one is the now-familiar 9 Leads X 7 Bights, with an over 2, under 2, weave. For some reason, I end up tying a lot of knots with the same count; probably because I tie them in hand and that is how big three fingers works out to be.

The last knot on this bottle starts off tight under the white Gaucho knot, then laps over the corner and covers all but a small circle of the bottom. Not the most practical knot in the world for a firm footing, but it was a nice practice piece. The count works out to 17 Leads X 16 Bights — I think that is right, but it is hard to count without disassembling the knot. That would defeat the give – them – away – to – someone – who – wants – them aspect of my knot tying. So keeping karma in mind, that is close enough on the count.

Thank you for coming by my site. If you have some way that I can improve either my knots or my site, please sing out. Come back again; the parade of knots is starting a new year, like the rest of us:

William

Medicine Bottle #35; Turk’s Heads Make This A Handsome Bottle

Medicine Bottle #35; a very handsome example of Turk's Heads covering a bottle.

I suppose that as long as I have to take all this demon-cursed medicine I’ll have homes for my knots. Given that I have doctor’s instructions to exercise my hands every day, I now have a valid legal excuse to tie knots — every day. If I didn’t have a friend who gave away most of my bottles I would be awash in knot-covered bottles.

This is one of the better bottles. The knots used are, from the top:

The white knot is a Turk’s Head of 5 Leads X 14 Bights, doubled in paracord. The shape is created by the underlying mouse.

The mouse is composed of the top of the knot which covers most of the bottle, and another Turk’s Head of 3 Leads X 8 Bights, doubled in black paracord. In person you can just see the bottom edge of this knot — the photo is artfully arranged to obscure most of it. You can still see it if you look at the large shot, and maybe zoom in.

The knot that covers the body of this bottle is a Turk’s Head of 8 Leads X 5 Bights, tripled in black paracord.

The three knots conspire to make this a very handsome example — I may end up keeping this one. After 12 or 14 years one of my bottles that I open 6 times a day is starting to falter. Probably my fault as much as its — I put the lids on bottles the same way I work knots down — tightly, very tightly.

Thank you for coming by my site. If you see any way to improve my knots, or my site, please sing out. That’s the only way I can make it better for everyone; myself and my visitors. Come back again; after all the sacrifices I make to the Gods Of Knots And Ropes I should be graced with a site worth looking at:

William

A Jam Jar; Empty Now, But Its Outer Self Is Improved By Turk’s Head Knots

A jam jar covered in Turk's Head variants.

As anyone who has been here before knows, I tie knots on just about anything that is in the right size range. I end up doing a lot of containers of different sorts. I sometimes even wait for them to become empty. This is one of those times. Now if I can only think up a purported use for this jar to justify the time, effort, and money spent. … … … I know — I needed another jar to store my things that will fit through the mouth of this jar. I know I have some lying around here somewhere…

Now that the happy hour is over, on to the knots, from the top:

The top knot is a little crowded because of the shape of the jar. It is, however, one of my stock knots. A Gaucho knot of 2 passes. The final count is 9 Leads X 7 Bights of single strands of paracord.

The white knot is a Turk’s Head of 9 Leads X 4 Bights, doubled in paracord. To be honest, looking at it now it also appears to be a little crowded. Funny how I didn’t see that when I was tying it.

The lowest knot, and by virtue of being the one which isn’t being pushed out of shape by the bottle, is the feature knot. It’s a Turk’s Head of 7 Leads X 13 Bights, doubled in green paracord. Even without the other knots being compromised, it would be a hard knot to beat.

Now I have to go look for something to store in this bedeviled jar.

Thank you for dropping by my site. If you know of any way by which I could improve my site, or my knots, please sing out. I would greatly appreciate your input. Come back again; I’ll try to have something new to hold your attention:

William