What I love about this project, is that it has very few process steps and can easily be completed in 15 minutes. First up was to learn how to tie the knot. I googled around a bit, but credit my success to this animation.
Even though the D*S blogger confessed it took her a little while to get the hang of tying the knot, I found it a lot easier than I expected. I started by practicing with a thin piece of nylon rope and after succeeding a few times, worked with the 10' long, 5/8" thick sisal rope I picked up at Ace Hardware (with my $5 reward coupon no less!).
I apologize for the lack of photos for this how-to. I wish I had in progress shots to share with you, but I really needed both hands to tie the knot, so I hope by watching the animation you'll be able to figure it out.
Here is my loose knot after I finished tying it, but before I tightened it. See the tennis ball inside? I cut it open and filled it with landscaping rocks and sand to add some weight. What good is a door stop or paper weight if it isn't heavy?
This is my three-knuckled knot all tightened up.
I had a lot of extra rope left over and I could see a bit of the tennis ball inside after I tied the knot the first time, so I undid it and tried my hand at tying a four-knuckled knot. It didn't turn out too bad either.
My monkey fist currently resides on my stack of magazines and books on our family room coffee table, but I plan to use it (or make another one) for our office once that room is back in order. This project was so quick, easy, fun, and inexpensive that I may start dabbling in other knot tying projects. Any recommendations or requests?
this is really cool!
ReplyDeleteI have a LOAD of projects that are WIP. I even have a section on my blog just for it. It's kind of embarrassing. My goal is to finish one a week — which is why I do "FO Friday". :)