I used about 45 feet of orange paracord, from Going Gear, to make this cow hitched paracord sleeve, to cover/carry/protect a 750ml(26oz) aluminum water bottle.A couple of feet of paracord were used for the cinch cord with a lanyard knot and a cord lock, and about 43 feet of cord for the hitching to cover the bottle. A needle and some thread were used to further secure the cord at the start and finish of the knot work. More or less paracord may be used, depending on how tight/loose/close together the hitches are done. The cow hitching used a bit more cord than the half hitching did with another water bottle sleeve I tied.
A previous blog post has a photo collage, that I made, showing how to start the cow hitching. The last couple of photos in the collage show two different starting methods, one with the cord tied to itself to start for a permanent covering, and the other with a separate cinch cord and cord lock for a removable sleeve.
17 comments:
Great work as always, Stormdrane! Thanks for sharing.
I recently made a half-hitched pouch that I use to hold my Dungeons & Dragons dice in. Finishing off one of these always gets me. I get to the bottom of the mold, hitching every other time, but I just stop and cut the end when it "looks done".
Dang it.
The cow hitching you did looks so cool, I'm halfway tempted to take mine apart & start over with this instead!
im sure you probably already thought of this but this would work great to turn a metal water bottle holder into a coffee thermos, protecting your hands for the heat and insulated the bottle.
you have some of the best ideas on here. thank you stormdrane.
Great work. I've been coming to your site for months. Do you have a tutorial on how you finished the bottom. I'm stuck. Thanks
To finish the hitching on the bottom, you can just use double or single hitches, which will spiral towards the center for the finish.
The pattern will vary depending on if you skip some hitches or not, but when you get to the center, just sew, melt, or glue the end strand when you can hitch no more.
If you look at some of the other hitching projects I did, you'll see they each look a little different, but the same hitching methods are used.
I love the water bottle idea, protects the bottle and looks cool. I make knotted jewelry which is how i found your blog, these are great ideas for creative guy gifts etc. Thanks!
Wow! this stuff is incredible! I am going to make some cool handle or tassel using your knots for every one of my gear bags, and my water bottles. This is just awesome! Check out my blog: http://randomstreamoc.blogspot.com/
I will show you my progress! thank you for the inspiration!
-J
Thought I'd try this for my water bottle. Did 1.5 knots, then almost hung myself from having to drag 45 feet of cord though each loop, so I gave up. Might get one from etsy and not have to do it myself. Great work though, you have to have the patience of Yoda!
Yesterday I made a geocache pouch based on a modified version of this design. As always, thanks for posting pix and tutorials for these excellent projects!
P.S. Loved your comment about the treadmill. :)
could you try and make a 6ft hammock with just paracord! with you skills i bet you could make a great paracord hammock
Paracord has been used to make hammocks, nets, truck bed cargo nets, etc... It's just on a 'to do' list of knotting projects that I haven't done yet. ;)
I know this has been up here for a while but I'm just now getting around to doing this project...
To help with the length of the working end I used the door knob of one of the closets at the end of my hallway like a pulley. What I have found to be the most difficult part is methodically taking up slack and evening out the spacing of the Cow Hitch after getting most of it done...
As always great projects ;-)
This is getting some well earned praise on the bushcraftuk.com forum. 10 out of ten plus extra for giving inspiration
Would love to put this on a bottle just purchased but since I haven't done any of this before, don't see how you start and the details in the collage I can't make out.....anywhere I can see how this is done in more detail....love the look,,,,thanks
@Anonymous, There are a couple of different ways to start, one by making a loop and tying the cord to itself with a simple overhand knot, which can be further secured by sew/melt/glue. This start is for a wrap that isn't removable from the bottle.
Another start is to use a second strand with a cord lock, for a open/close top pouch/wrap, where you tie the hitching cord onto it with an over hand loop and then start the hitching.
To make the collage easier to see, just right click on the image to 'view image', then use your CTRL and +/= keyboard keys to increase the size of the image so that you can more easily see the photo. Using CTRL and the -/_ key will reduce the image/page size when done. ;)
So excited to start this project. I noticed that your bottle was smaller than mine (mine is a full liter) how much paracord would you suggest I use on this project?
@Frank, I used 45 feet for the open netting look to the hitching on mine, so with a larger bottle you could conceivably use twice that or more if you made it a tighter pattern.
So, I usually over estimate what I think I'll need, and would probably work with a 100' hank of paracord for a tight pattern, less for an open pattern, but the amount you end up using can vary by so many variables, that you can't really use a specific number unless you'd tied many of the exact same project, using the same cord, same object being tied around, and tension as you tie to narrow down what you should start with... ;)
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