Jekyll2022-08-06T20:14:09-07:00http://localhost:4000/feed/tag/review.xmlKnotty Notions ][ ReviewA decorative knotting blog.Carol WangBook Review: Chinese Knotting by Lydia Chen2010-02-05T00:00:00-08:002010-02-05T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/book-review-chinese-knotting-by-lydia-chen<p><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/lydia1.jpg" align="left" alt="cover of the Echo edition of Lydia Chen Chinese Knotting" height="254" /><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/Lydia-Chen-Red.jpg" align="right" alt="cover of the current Tuttle edition of Lydia Chen Chinese Knotting" />In print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.
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<p>First was the original (Traditional) Chinese edition published in Taiwan (the cover of the original Chinese edition is identical in illustration to the English edition pictured at left but for the title rendered in Chinese text):<br />
<strong>中國結</strong><br />
Author: 陳夏生 (Chen Hsia-Sheng, chén xià shēng)<br />
ISBN: ??<br />
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 edition (January, 1981)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches</p>
<p>Soon followed by an English edition also published in Taiwan and distributed by Tuttle (<em>see left</em>):<br />
<strong>Chinese Knotting</strong><br />
Author: Lydia Chen<br />
ISBN: 0-8048-1389-2<br />
Hardcover: 116 pages<br />
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 English edition (January, 1982)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches</p>
<p>Somewhere in the middle here was a softcover Tuttle edition with a hot pink cover. Perhaps someone who owns this edition will email me a scan of the cover?</p>
<p>Most recently, Tuttle published a second English edition with reworked cover (<em>see right</em>) and a shiny new subtitle:
<strong>Chinese Knotting: Creative Designs that are Easy and Fun!</strong><br />
Author: Lydia Chen<br />
ISBN-10: 0804833990<br />
ISBN-13: 978-0804833998<br />
Hardcover: 116 pages<br />
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; 2 edition (August 15, 2003)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches</p>
<p>So that’s the publishing information. The publisher’s forward is different from my original English edition to the latest Tuttle edition, but that’s pretty much it as the 70’s style fashions pictured within with attest.</p>
<p>The book begins with some history of the craft (knot tying in an Asian context) and of the book (gathering information on a craft that at the time was rapidly disappearing). A modest gallery of the finished knotworks continues the introduction, but as the book is more an instruction book than a project book, it is not front-loaded with colour photos of the projects you’ll find in the back. An overview of the knot tying process and materials finishes out the fore-matter before we dig into the knots themselves.</p>
<p>The <a href="/translation/CK1-knot-list">list of knots in Chinese Knotting</a> along with translation notes are found in the <a href="/translation/CK1-knot-list">previous post</a>. From <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/coin/">double coin</a> to <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/square/">flat</a> are basic knots, the rest are compound knots.</p>
<p>Ms. Chen sees the knots in a very architectural way or maybe I mean <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draughtsman">draughtsman</a>-like. The knots are often presented in an exploded layout fashion and where possible the instructions are just a step by step revealing of this. Thus her instructions for the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/">plafond knot</a> has no flipping or inversion as others have. But where it is important, as in the case of the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/">good luck knot</a>, process steps are included.</p>
<p>This style may not be to your liking. Certain knots are easier to learn from a process versus layout point of view, but no one can deny the wonderful and spectacular things her very precise minds-eye has created. In any case, that’s why we have more than one book on the same topic, right? To add different perspectives when necessary for our own learning processes.</p>
<p>It would be difficult to over-estimate the impact the original Chinese edition or the translated English edition of this book had on Chinese knotting in Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore, etc or decorative knotting in the English-speaking world and, indeed, traditional Asian knotting elsewhere. It would be an interesting sociological (?) project to try to trace that…</p>
<p>The book ends with an interesting collection of small, generally personal fashion related, projects. Examples of these can be seen on the various editions of the cover.</p>
<p>Forgot I was writing a “review” here. 8) This is an essential book for any collection of knot books (even if you’re only into practical knots because, y’know, you need to expand your horizons. 8) It is also an essential work for anyone studying Chinese culture, Chinese art, or decorative arts in general.</p>
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<iframe src="http://rcm-fr.amazon.fr/e/cm?t=skateorg01&o=8&p=8&l=as1&asins=0804833990&md=0V7HTNAW9BB7KPZWWWG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Carol WangIn print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.Book Review: The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley2010-01-11T00:00:00-08:002010-01-11T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/book-review-the-ashley-book-of-knots-by-clifford-ashley<p>I want to catalogue my knotty book collection (and braids and any related crafts) and this seems like a good place to do it. Well, the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/">main site</a> is where it should probably end up, but here’s a good place to work on it, I can add curating on the other side.
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<p><strong>The Ashley Book of Knots</strong><br />
Author: Clifford W. Ashley<br />
ISBN: 0-385-04025-3<br />
Hardcover: 640 pages<br />
Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (June 21, 1944)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 1.6 inches</p>
<p>In a big list of knot books (yes, it will be a <strong>big</strong> list 8), where can you start but with Ashley’s? Once you enter the (anglophone) world of knots you will begin to hear about “Ashley’s”. It is the “knot bible” they will say. It is the one knot book you should have if you can only have one <a href="http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/knotlink.htm#bookstore">they will say</a>. It is indeed a great knot book, justly known for it’s breadth and depth. Ashley both numbers and names the knots, sometimes when there was no name, just a number. It is such a part of knotting culture, that some will refer to knots by their Ashley number. As such, it is an essential knot tyer’s reference with practical and decorative knots as well as most anything else to be done with string.</p>
<p>A note about those numbers, though: the last knot number in the book is 3854, and some will refer to the book as containing 3854 different knots. This is not the case. Ashley was enumerating knots and their uses, so the same knot may be referred to more than once and given more than one number. Also, some Ashley numbers are not knots at all, but concepts or tools (such as #85 to #147). So, while there may be thousands of knots in the book, there are probably not close to 4000. I was surprised that I could not find a straightforward index of Ashley knot numbers (often referred to as ABoK #) and knot names, but I did find a(n incomplete?) database:
<a href="http://knotcyphers.pbworks.com/ABoK+WikiIndex">http://knotcyphers.pbworks.com/ABoK+WikiIndex</a></p>
<p>One of the things I’d like to do is to list the knots contained in my books, a cross reference-able index. Obviously, I’m not going to start with Ashley’s 8). For this venerable tome, I’ll stop with the table of contents (which I was also surprised to not be able to find online, especially considering it’s availability in a variety of formats, so I had to type it myself).</p>
<pre>
The Ashley Book of Knots Table of Contents
1. On Knots
2. Occupational Knots
3. Knob Knots. Single-Strand Stopper or Terminal Knots
4. Knob Knots. Single-Strand Lanyard Knots
5. Knob Knots. Single-Strand Button Knots
6. Knob Knots. Multi-Strand Stopper or Terminal Knots
7. Knob Knots. Multi-Strand Lanyard Knots
8. Knob Knots. Two-Strand Lanyard Knots
9. Knob Knots. Multi-Strand Buttons, Tied in Hand
10. Knob Knots. Multi-Strand Buttons, Tied on the Table
11. Single-Loop Knots
12. Double- and Multiple-Loop Knots
13. The Noose
14. Knots Tied in the Bight
15. Clove Hitch and Other Crossing Knots
16. Binding Knots
17. The Turk's-Head
18. Bends
19. Shroud Knots (Multi-Strand Bends)
20. Belaying and Making Fast
21. Hitches to Spar and Rail (Right-Angle Pull)
22. Hitches to Masts, Rigging, and Cable (Lengthwise Pull)
23. Hitches to Stake and Post, Pile and Bollard
24. Ring Hitches
25. Hooks, Beckets, and Toggles
26. Miscellaneous Holdfasts
27. Occasional Knots
28. Lashings and Slings
29. The Monkey's Fist and Other Knot Coverings
30. Flat or Two-Dimensional Knots
31. Fancy Knots
32. Square Knotting
33. Tricks and Puzzles
34. Long and Short Splices (Multi-Strand Bends)
35. Eye Splices (Multi-Strand Loops)
36. Odd Splices
37. Chain and Crown Sinnets
38. Plat Sinnets
39. Solid Sinnets
40. Practical Marlingspike Seamanship
41. Decorative Marlingspike Seamanship (Applied Knots)
</pre>
<p>While the book both names the knots and shows how they are tied, when stuffing close to 3000 knots into 640 pages, the instructions by necessity must be brief. For many people and many knots, those instructions will be too brief. So, I would not recommend Ashley’s as anyone’s <em>first</em> knot book. A beginner would be better served by a more limited knot book with space for introductory discourse, explanations and descriptions not to mention step by step illustrations.</p>
<p>Still in print, one generally expects that the publisher will continue to keep this reference available. There are also a numerous scanned copies floating around on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_%28protocol%29">torrents</a> not to mention other download sites you and your search engine should have little difficulty in finding.</p>
<p>It is also available on <a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=QaSBVuPK9H0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false">Google Books</a>.</p>
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<iframe src="http://rcm-fr.amazon.fr/e/cm?t=skateorg01&o=8&p=8&l=as1&asins=0385040253&md=0V7HTNAW9BB7KPZWWWG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Carol WangI want to catalogue my knotty book collection (and braids and any related crafts) and this seems like a good place to do it. Well, the main site is where it should probably end up, but here’s a good place to work on it, I can add curating on the other side.Tool and Book Review: Globe Knot Tool and Cookbook2009-01-15T00:00:00-08:002009-01-15T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/tool-and-book-review-globe-knot-tool-and-cookbook<p><a href="http://knottool.com/gk_kit.html"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/globe/globe-knot-tool.jpg" alt="Don Burrhus' globe knot tool" align="left" /></a> Don Burrhus has written (at this point) 3 books and sells kits to go with them. Two are about <a href="http://knottool.com/th_kit.html" title="Turks Head Cookbook 1">Turks Head Knots</a> and the most recent is about globe knots. I have all of them, but I’ll tackle the Turks Head kit and books more thoroughly at a later date.<br />
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<p>The globe knot kit consists of 2 labeled <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride">PVC</a> tubes with 3 and 4 columns of pins. Four at the top and four at the bottom. The pins are these clever little screw type thingies (yes, I’m sure there’s a technical term somewhere that precisely describes the item in question, I just don’t know what that is) that retract into the tube when you don’t need them. A wee little <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_key">Allen key</a> (included) is used to extract or hide the pins. Extra pins (and an extra Allen key) are included in case you lose one. Blind cord (yes, the kind of cord used to pull up and down window blinds, firmly braided round nylon/polyester 1.5mm??) in an assortment of colours is included. A self-threading needle completes the kit and the whole is packed into what looks like a repurposed multiple CD case.</p>
<p>My biggest complaint about the kit itself is that the little bottle that holds the Allen keys and extra pins is too big (diameter) for the case. A smaller bottle or a little resealable bag would allow your case to close entirely (yes, I am aware that’s a pretty nit-picky complaint, but you have to start somewhere 8), so I moved my little bits into a snack size zip bag and now I’m a happier person. 8)</p>
<p>The book is a standard 8.5” x 11” spiral-bound for easy reference while tying with a plastic front and back to give it some structure. The book has 202 pages with instructions for 137 knots, most of which are unique to this book. It’s the kind of thing to make a knot fanatic (the kind always looking for new knots) jump up and down in glee, if they were prone to that sort of behavior. 8)</p>
<p>The front matter of the book includes a number of colour plates with crowds of tied knots and accompanying maps that indicate which knot is which. There is also a step-by-step illustrated section that shows how to use the tools. The appendix includes a bibliography, some cord usage and core sizing formulas, material sources, and a discussion of <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#ashley">Ashley’s</a> globe knots.</p>
<p>The instructions for each knot is contained on one page. There is a pin diagram (which pins are used for this knot), a knot schematic, a facet count, a shape diagram, and a tying formula based on pin numbers with interim overs and unders. The crowd of knots on the cover is nice and makes for a great cover, but I would have much preferred more orderly knot arrangements (with their descriptions). This is a minor point. What I would have vastly preferred is a picture of the knot in question on it’s instruction page. I have not gone through the book to the extent that I would be able to say whether or not each set of instructions has a photo of the completed knot in the book. Something the Japanese books I buy like to do (so that they can have colour plates at the front of the book and cheaper paper with monochrome text and diagrams in the rest of the book) is to label an object in the colour plate section with the page number/range of their instructions and in the instruction section. Conversely, they note on the instruction pages where to find the appropriate colour plate page to supplement the grey-scale illustrations).</p>
<p>Clearly, this is not a deal-breaker. For anyone the least bit interested in globe knots, I highly recommend both book and kit. Perhaps Don will tweak the format for his future books. 8)</p>
<p>Speaking of tweaks I’d like to see, I’d love for a recommended length of cord and core size (the length of cord and core size for the examples he made would do nicely) just as a reference point for the impatient who don’t want to work through the formulas while fooling around.</p>
<p><strong><u>Beads</u></strong>
<a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/globe/globe1.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/globe/globe1-stamp.jpg" alt="globe knot bead" align="left" /></a><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/globe/globe1-hole.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/projects/globe/globe1-hole-stamp.jpg" alt="globe knot bead hole side" align="right" /></a> Now, you take any object and put a hole in it somewhere and you have a bead, especially if it’s round. So, I looked at these round knots and thought, put a bead in as core, and the whole thing is a bead! My first globe knot from the book was one of the step by step walk through knots from the front (so it’s either the 28 or the 40 facet knot). I honestly can’t tell from looking at it and at the moment have no patience for counting.</p>
<p>As with all things beady, I showed my new bead to <a href="http://crafter.org/beading/fvb/">my bead group</a> and a number of them were interested in learning, so I’ll be teaching a bead knot to the group this weekend (Jan 18, 2009). I just need to pick one. I’m working my way through the book and trying to pick the one with minimal facets that looks nice. I’ve come up with a low cost alternative to the snazzy tool so that all in the group can have one. More on that later.<br clear="all" /></p>
<p><strong>Administrivia:</strong> I was noticing that the anonymous user sees an entirely different date stamp on the posts than the registered users do. Of course, this is only relevant to me because the anonymous user might think that wasn’t hitting the one a day mark due to the funky time stamps. 8P 8( Something to fix another day… 8)</p>Carol WangDon Burrhus has written (at this point) 3 books and sells kits to go with them. Two are about Turks Head Knots and the most recent is about globe knots. I have all of them, but I’ll tackle the Turks Head kit and books more thoroughly at a later date.