0. So, you do want to tie the Ampersand bowline in-the-bight... Evidently, you have to start from a bight !
Place its tip at the right side, so you will tie it using mostly your right hand. ( Left-handed people should do the exact opposite. )
1. With your right hand, twist this bight
three times, 180 degrees each time, clockwise, like you turn a screw : righty-tighty.
Why "
three" times ? Because there are "
three" bights in a bowline : the eye, the collar and the nipping loop.
Have you swallowed this "because" ? I hope not !
Just remember to twist the initial bight
three times, 180 degrees each time. I guess that there should be a number of other mnemonic ways to remember the number "
three"
- I have just utilised one which, although it means absolutely no-thing about why, in this particular tying method, this particular bight of this particular TIB bowline should be twisted
three times, it does mean something about the
three bights of the bowline, in general...
2. At the "upper" line leading to the twisted
three times bight, and with your left, now, hand, form a right-handed nipping loop, and hold it by squeezing its crossing point in between your thumb and your index finger. Notice that, when they hold the nipping loop by squeezing its two legs at its crossing point, the thumb and the index finger themselves form an eye, too, symmetric to the eye of the nipping loop
. Notice also that, if you have formed a right-handed nipping loop, indeed, and not a left-handed one, both its legs would be
perpendicular to the corresponding finger they are in contact - not
parallel to it. If you would find out that your fingers are
parallel to the legs of the nipping loop they are in contact, you would have formed the nipping loop wrongly : straighten it out, and then form it again, with the correct handedness. ( I like this haptic way of self-assuring that a nipping loop is right-handed, by just touching it - so one may use this way even if he ties the bowline in the dark ).
3a. ( This 3a is step used only to paint an easy to remember mental image, and to describe its various parts. It can be bypassed after some time and practice ).
Push the tip of the twisted bight somewhat to the left, towards its twisted legs, in order to form two smaller sub-bights : the "upper" one, which will become the collar of the bowline, and the "lower" one, which will become the eye of the bowline. So, now we have the
three bights of the bowline we were talking about when we were trying to memorize the number "
three" ( we have to twist the initial bight "
three" times, 180 degrees each time, clockwise - remember ?
). In fact, we don t even need to separate the initial twisted bight into two smaller ones : we can just grab the "upper" half part of the initial twisted bowline, move it to the left, and reeve it through the nipping loop, following a "first under / then over" path, leaving the remaining half part outside the nipping loop, at the right. After we will complete this stage, we will need two, only, moves, to tie the Ampersand bowline.
3b. Reeve the "upper" bight ( the one which is going to become the collar of the bowline ) through the nipping loop, from "right" and "below", to "left" and "above" of the nipping loop. So, now the "upper" bight has been moved, and it is located in the left side, and the "lower" and "right" bight has remained where it was, in the right side. We can now see the nipping loop, and the collar which goes through it - but, how on earth will this collar manage to encircle the Stranding and the Tail End, which do not penetrate it at this stage?
4. Piece of cake
! By pure knotting
magic : Just reeve the whole knotted part of the line you have already formed through the "upper"/left" bight of the collar, so that the two free lines, the Standing and the Tail Ends, will become encircled by it ! In fact, after some time, you will find out that it is much easier to do the same thing the other way - that is, it is much easier to move only the bight of the collar, first "over", then to the right, and then around the rest of the knot, and engulf / encircle it. So, doing this, you will have to move only the "mouth", the bight of the collar, and not what will be "swallowed" by it, the rest of the knot. When this "mouth" will be all around the bights of the eye and of the nipping loop, just push it to the left, to the side of its final destination.
5. After you push the "upper"/left" bight ( which will become the collar of the bowline ) to the left, now pull the "lower"/"right" bight, ( which will become the eye of the bowline) to the right, all the way - until the bight of the collar, which is communicating with the bight of the eye, shrinks as much as possible. Congratulations ! You have just finished the tying of the Ampersand bowline, in-the-bight. And you may even have memorized the number "
three" !