Knotty Notions - page 36 of 41

Good Luck Basics

Jan 21, 2009

As you can tell from the logo over at The Chinese Knotting Homepage, the good luck knot is one of my favourites. To the left here started out as an experiment with decorative rope making. I wanted to see if I could duplicate a braided look with twisted rope techniques. The rope side of things worked out (at least to my eyes) but then what to do with it? The good luck knot seemed like a good choice as there is minimal fiddling with the cord during construction for this decorative rope with unknown durability.

To help emphasize the structure of the various knots, to accompany the monochrome example knot, I'm tying versions that are half rainbow and half black. The rainbow colours provide both contrast to the black and an indication of where along the length of the cord being used to tie the knot the various elements of the knot might be.

4 good luck tied in black and doubled with rainbow

Similarly for the last knot on the left, a basic black knot is doubled with a rainbow cord. Terminology The good luck knot is different from most of the other knots with multiple ears in that there are double the number of ears than the size number of the knot would indicate. The 4-knots here on this page have 8 ears each. 4 short and 4 long. But, of course, ear size is subject to the whims of the knot tyer so basing terminology on that would be foolish. However, notice that what is traditionally the "long" ear comes out of the side of the knot and the "short" ear wraps around the corner of the knot. So, there you have some terminology to deal with the good luck family of knots.

Good Luck Basics

Jan 21, 2009

good luck terminology

As you can tell from the logo over at The Chinese Knotting Homepage, the good luck knot is one of my favourites.

Globe Knot Makeshift Tool

Jan 20, 2009

project diary globe tools

As mentioned in my review of the globe knot book, my bead group wanted to learn some globe knots so I picked 18JBD for it’s relative simplicity (facet number) and snazzy appearance. Of course, in order to follow the instructions from the book, one is going to need a tool. Since buying the official tool just to try one knot seems little excessive, I came up with a makeshift tool that should cost pennies to construct.

Link Dump 2009.01.18

Jan 19, 2009

linkography

Lee Valley Tools is a local hardware/gardening/woodworking store. They don’t sell the plants or the wood, but they do sell the tools. They have stores across the country, but somehow it still feels wrong to call it a chain, perhaps because they are still family-owned (I think!).

Globe Knot Beads Part 3

Jan 18, 2009

project diary globe beads administrivia

This one has 18 facets (18JBD). The base bead is less football shaped (kinda pointy towards the poles, vaguely oval/eye shaped in cross section) and more oblate. The best I could do on short notice, but overall I like the resulting globe knot better. The question is do I like it better because of the core bead shape or because of the more facets to the globe? I’m going with the facet idea.