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.
