Alan Lee has presented another nice, most secure double-nipping-loop / double-collar "Eskimo"- like bowline, based on a Pretzel nipping structure. (1). ( By "Eskimo"- like, I mean a post-eye-tiable loop where the last part of the returning eye leg, as it enters into the knot s nub, it forms an L-shaped deflexion, a "step" : so it remains perpendicular to the standing end = it emains perpendicular to the axis of the loading of the loop ).
While I was trying to explain why me, personally, I prefer another, very similar loop which is based on a Girth hitch nipping structure, I said that :
" The Girth hitch is .. much easier to tie and inspect [ than this Pretzel hitch ]". The very moment I wrote this sentence, I realized that the Girth hitch and this (particular) Pretzel hitch
are not very different after all... and that one could start from the Girth hitch, rearrange its strands a little bid, and tie the Pretzel hitch. In this thread I show one way one can do this - there may well be many others, even simpler to remember, but that was the first one which happened to cross my mind !
1. Tie a Girth hitch nipping structure, so that the "bridge" that connects its two loops goes "over" the two parallel and adjacent segments of its ends ( the standing end and the eye leg of the standing part ). Drive the returning eye leg through the two nipping loops of this Girth hitch. Leave the eye that is formed with this move in the same place where it is formed, at the one
side of the Girth hitch, without re-arranging its legs or moving its tip in any way. ( At the attached picture,
the eye lies at the right side of the frame. I has supposed that most right-handed people would prefer to hold the working end with their right hand, as they will be pushing it through the two loops. To achieve such an orientation,
the standing end should be placed at the left side of the frame ).
2. Push the eye leg of the standing part "over" the standing end, towards the left side of the picture. The two ends remain parallel, as before, but now the standing end is at the right side of the frame, and the eye leg of the standing part at the left side of the frame.
3. Tighten the knot a little bid in this position, so its strands would not be able to be re-arranged by themselves during the next move. You do not need to tighten it all the way, just enough, so its four limbs, the standing end, the tail and the two eye legs would remain in the same place they were at the end of the second stage.
4 .Flip the whole eye over the whole nub ( tail included ), so it reaches its final position. So, the eye would move
from the lower right side of the frame to the upper left side, and then to the upper centre. The Standing end and the tail will remain where they were, but the tip of the eye and the two eye legs would be in the position they should occupy in a ready to be loaded loop.
I can only
hope that there would be at least one interested reader, who would follow those instructions, tie the knot a number of times, and then report his/hers experience and opinion here. I do not doubt that there are many other methods, that would probably suit him/her better - because
all knot tyers tie the same knots in different ways !
I have only tried to figure out a plausible, easy to remember and follow method, that relates, in some way, the this Pretzel hitch to the Girth hitch.
{ I would also like to mention here, that this Pretzel "Eskimo"- like eyeknot is one of the stronger non-fixed post-eye-tiable loops we have - it is so strong that it can be used in the place of a fixed loop, when the load we anticipate is not very heavy. Its nipping structure is so self-stabilizing, the L-shaped "Eskimo" - like deflexion / "step" of the returning eye leg is so effective, that we do not even need a colar structure ! Evidently, the "slipped" version of this adjustable eyeknot is TIB (tiable-in-the-bight)
and PET (post-eye-tiable), two very useful and convenient properties. }.
1.
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?topic=4125.msg28347#msg28347