Things to see and do
The United States Institute for Theatre Technology is having their annual conference and stage expo on March 18-21, 2009 in Cincinnati, OH. One of their Wednesday classes is the apparently popular “Knots, knots, knots” a class on knots perhaps as relates to stagecraft? (via)
http://ww2.usitt.org/default.aspx?PageID=3140#505
More of the similar. 8) Octagonal (8 sided) good luck knot. Again, as is traditional in Chinese knots, for an octagonal knot, the structural loops are overlapped 3 times. In this case you would be tying 3-over crowns. The corner versus side ears might start getting a bit confusing at this point. Remember that both sides of the side ear come out of a single point (the long ears here) and the corner ear wraps around other cords (the short ears here. But, of course, the ear length in your knot is entirely up to you).
The hexagonal (6-sided) good luck knot. The same knot as my 2008 Xmas ornament. Take your cord and make a 6-pointed star shape with the bights (with the free ends being the 6th point) and do two 2-over crown (overlap 2 arms rather than 1) for a nice tight centre. Depending on your cord (or wire or whatever), you are unlikely to want to tie a regular (1-over) as the structure would be too loose. But try it yourself and see for the experience. 8)
This particular instance is analogous to the rotated square good luck variant as the ends are coming out of corner ears versus side ears.
I’ve been thinking of the whole 3 sided versus three (knot type or 6-eared and 6 petals and whatnot. Something like 3-luck is certainly good for quick file naming and shorthand, but in descriptive text when trying to be clear and unambiguous, I’m thinking to use full-on mathematical (polygonal) terminology. Especially since, as demonstrated by the case of the good luck knots the number of ears does not necessarily properly describe a many-sided knot. So all those 4-sided good luck knots I’ve been talking about they’re all square even when they look round. sigh
But in any case, because pictures make a blog infinitely more interesting, here’s the triangular good luck knot. Nothing tricky here, just make a ‘Y’ shape with bights and crown it twice. Reverse direction for the second crown for a crisper shape.
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