Thursday, April 10, 2008


Here's the Coyote Brown 'Type I' paracord that the Supply Captain now has. I bought a couple of 50 foot hanks, to check it out. I made a neck lanyard with it, shown next to one in OD Green so you might get an idea of the color. Both were made with a 3 peg knitting spool starting with a 34 foot length, then added a swivel clip with the snake knot.



Of course the colors always look different to me in hand than what I end up with after trying to take a halfway decent photo with the available lighting(the homemade light tent is collecting dust in the closet). Then again more changes with the Picasa software, after uploading, to improve the pictures if possible before I give up and say 'That'll do', or just delete the lot and either start over or forget about it.

12 comments:

Nick Edgar said...

Very nice. Just curious, when you applied the snake knot, did you work back from the clasp or towards it?

Shamrock said...

StormDrane ~ Did you gut the paracord prior to using? Lanyards look great!

Shamr0ck

Stormdrane said...

nick:

After I'm done with the knitting spool, I remove the lanyard and take the single strands, running them thru the loops(from the pegs/nails) to keep the lanyard from unraveling.

I bring the ends together, the two strands go thru the swivel clip, leaving about 1/2" or so of space between clip and lanyard, there I do the snake knot(around the two strands) back towards the lanyard.

You can see that done on my 'Snake knot wrist lanyard tutorial' on the 'Instructables' website or somewhere amongst my posts.

Shamr0ck:

Those are 'Type I' paracord(not the larger Type III 550 paracord), so they're only about 2mm or so in size for their diameter and only have a single inner strand, which I left intact.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the wonderful blog and information!
H7o Global
http://h7oglobal.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Stormdrane - I have to ask,how in the world are you getting those small monkeyfists completed? Is there a trick to getting them so uniform with them being that small?

Stormdrane said...

The smaller fists are harder to make due to their smaller size, but being patient and gradually tightening them to keep everything uniform helps. I also use the small pointed end of a stylus to work the slack out.

Shamrock said...

Stormdrane ~

I was a craft store the other day with one of my children and saw a spool knitter by Clover. It wasn't expensive so I picked it up and made a trial run using some masons line.

The Clover Wonder Knitter has both a 3 peg and 6 peg wheel and the diameter of the pins is fixed. The first attempt created a rather loose knit which I believe I'd like to have tighter/smaller.

is the tightness of the knit a function of pin diameter or tension as one knits?

I'm going to go find some type I paracord and try it with something which is a bit larger in diameter and stiffer than mason's line as well.

Stormdrane said...

The tightness of the knit depends on both the diameter of the cord and the spacing of the pegs. Changing either of those variables affects the outcome.

I have the same Clover spool and the 3 peg wheel works ok with 'Type I' paracord or other 2mm-3mm sized cord.

Anonymous said...

Hi!

I know this must seem like a slightly off-topic question, but I've made several paracord lanyards after being inspired by your site, and was wondering if there was any specific way to clean them? It's more for the wrist ones that seem to pick up some grime over time. Thanks!

Stormdrane said...

The paracord bracelets do get dirty/smelly after wearing/sweating in them for a while. I use an old soft bristle toothbrush and liquid soap to clean them in the sink. Then let air dry.

The same method works for any nylon type gear/wear without damaging it.

Jay, aka The Angry Little Man said...

Your work ROCKS!! Do you create and sell this somewhere? Or is it "just" a hobby?

Stormdrane said...

I used to sell some online, but too many requests and making a lot of the same thing over and over was getting me burned out on my hobby. So it's mostly just a hobby.