Saturday, November 19, 2011

74 Face Globe Knot....

This was my first attempt at a globe knot with this many faces/facets, and also the first time I've used pins with a mandrel for knot work, usually doing projects that I can get by without needing them.

I was following CUrchin's tutorial, but was using a smaller diameter cord than I thought I was, and half way through the knot, realized my error.  If I'd used 2.4mm diameter cord, like in the tutorial, the golf ball should be evenly covered with 3 passes, but when I started working the slack out and added the third pass with my cord, which is actually about 2mm, I could see I'd need another pass, but I was already getting uneven with tightening it up.

Since I already had so much time invested in this one, I went ahead  and finished it, even with my mistakes.  I'll make sure to take more time on my next attempt to hopefully get it right, although I'm already thinking of using two passes of paracord, which may throw me off as well, haha...

After tying the initial 3 lead 4 bight knot and doubling it, it was a bit awkward in adding slack in the knot to fit it over the pins in the cardboard tissue tube, so I had to start over when that got out of hand.  It was easier after I figured that I needed to work the slack into the knot for each of the 4 outer bights, on each side of the knot, one at a time.  From that point on, following CUrchin's video slideshow was just a matter of play/pause to make sure I had all the overs/unders correct.

CUrchin mentions retying the initial knot around the pins if working the slack into them doesn't work, but not having used pins before had me scratching my head at a loss, even with a simple 3L4B TH knot.  I've learned to tie turk's head knots from loosely tied diagrams of the knot, and even to date have not used printed out grids that are meant to be placed around a mandrel and used with pins.  That would surely open up much larger and complicated projects for me, but I tend to want to stick with easier fare.

The hard part with tying globe knots, for me, is in the time spent working the slack out and tightening them up.  If I get in a rush, it quickly gets uneven, scrunched up and crowded in some spots and spread out on another as seen in my photos, and I've not been able to fix them any other way than to start over.  That's a real bummer of a feeling for a project that can involve a few hours of work...

If I posted all the mistakes and errors I've done in learning knot work, this blog would probably have 10 times as many or more posts, lol...  Hopefully showing my slip-up will help someone avoid the same blunder. ;)

7 comments:

curchin said...

I recognize it's a challenging tutorial. Let's put it this way- It took you an evening to get to the place that took me a week and a half. LOL. Your knot looks great nonetheless. If my figuring is right, a 5Lx4B TH will get you 146 faces. If you try it, make sure you lead in "in the bight". Keep up the great work.

Ninja R said...

Yeah, when I tied my first, I didn't understand there's a direct correlation with ball size/cord size. Tried three passes with paracord on a golf ball -- didn't work at all. Ended up using that scrap on a baseball pill (the rubber ball inside a baseball) and starting anew. I'm able to make two passes on a golf ball with a bit of it showing.

This is, of course, using Patrick Ducey's "Closed End Turks Head" grids over at khww.net: http://www.khww.net/articles.php?cat_id=6

For the above, I used only the largest one. Not sure how many facets it is.

Dan said...

Looks great to me! Looks very difficult, but what a cool knot.

Jill said...

Gorgeous!

Home on the Range said...

Happy Thanksgiving. I've made my second bracelet, one for one of my best girlfriends and one for my guy. They turned out really incredible given your directions.

Stormdrane said...

@Brigid, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours too! Careful, Barkley will be jealous and soon demand a collar sized version. :)

Unknown said...

I have noticed that Globe Knots, depending on the weave will tend to bunch up at their "poles" and be a little more loose in the middle of the globe. great looking piece either way.