Author Topic: Walker's footrope  (Read 14141 times)

drnihili

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Walker's footrope
« on: September 25, 2011, 08:52:03 PM »
A few weeks ago I was playing around with variations on a 6 strand footrope knot and came up with these.



The leftmost is a standard footrope except for the tuckup.  Normally all 6 strands would exit the left of the knot, but I've tucked 4 of them inside the knot so that I can use the knot as a fob.

The rightmost knot is sort of where the footrope meets a Matthew Walker.  Topologically, I think it's identical to a Matthew Walker.  Crown over 6, then wall 6 and tuck up through the center.  It takes a bit of care in the initial work.  I use a chopstick through the center of the knot to maker sure the crowns go all the way around and to keep the whole thing from collapsing to a MWK before it's snug.

The middle knot is similar to the rightmost, except it starts with crowning 5.  Then with the 6 tails hanging down take each tail over the other 5 and tuck up into the bottom of the crown.  Technically, I think this makes it a crown and crown rather than a crown and wall, is that right?  A chopstick is close to essential on this one and it's much fussier to tighten that the rightmost knot.  But I like the look of the "stitch" in the middle.  I have an idea about making the stitch a different color (crown 6, then 5) but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

I'm curious if these are well known.  I've checked ABOK, but don't have easy access to other resources.  I could probably come up with better instructions if anyone is interested.

*edit*  I was right about making the stitch in  the middle knot a different color.  I think this would be most effective in a 4 or 8 strand version with only two color, but here's the 6 strand 3 color version.  The main drawback is that one side of the knot is made slightly longer than the other.  This can be minimized with careful working, but I haven't been able to get rid of it entirely.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2011, 11:37:16 PM by drnihili »

KnotMe

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2011, 02:10:16 AM »
very cool.  thx for sharing

Wed

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2011, 05:34:40 PM »
The center of the center knot has an element of barber pole in it. The general idea behind those, is to have the inner wind going up one way and down the outer the other way (just like the MWK). Where same colours meet, they cross inverted. I can fully understand that it is very unstable before it is sufficiently taut. It seems the latest presented knot follows the same rule, but with shifted order.

Looks good finished.

Tatian

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2011, 09:26:14 PM »
Is very impressive!

Frayed Knot Arts

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2011, 09:32:46 PM »
Sweet!

Takler

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #5 on: September 29, 2011, 09:06:42 PM »
Super!
Marcin
Szczecin, Poland

drnihili

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2011, 01:57:09 AM »
Apologies for the poor picture, but here's the contrasted stitch knot in 4-strand.  I think it works better visually.  8 should be just as good with two colors, but that's getting pretty bulky.  I think I'll mainly tie this in 4.

As a bonus, it seems you can lengthen the stitches to get a zigzag knot.  In theory, you should be able to add even more levels to it.  In practice I can't imagine doing more than this.


Atomic

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2011, 03:55:19 PM »
Nice job, I love the colors. LSU fan by any chance?

drnihili

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #8 on: October 02, 2011, 03:59:53 PM »
No, I just grabbed a couple of high contrast colors.  The blue should actually be purple, but that's what I get for using the camera in my phone and not paying attention to lighting.

Glad you liked the knots.

Atomic

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Re: Walker's footrope
« Reply #9 on: October 03, 2011, 12:41:47 AM »
Looks purple on my PC.

 

anything