@neil Listing *which* knots people use in normal everyday life might also be interesting.

@neil as I recently noted elsewhere, I have dyslexia-but-for-ropes.

There’s a reason I’m a kayaker, not a sailor or a climber.

@neil Probably couldn't name them. Given an afternoon to faff around with some rope I might (re)discover / remember some more, though.

@neil I marked 1-2 but I *think* I know maybe one or two more, but since I haven't practiced in FOREVER I'm not sure I'd still remember how, so I went with the safe option 8-D

@neil 3-5 but only because I used to climb a lot. Never actually got taught them in school or anything like that. Wasn't a scout.

@neil
Le Nœud de Cabestan (Clove Hitch) my preferred one as a Scout, 🪢

I knew 2 ways to do it, the second being when you don't have access to the end of the wood you want to tight it into.

@neil tie or tie properly? 😂

I suspect the people voting 0, 1-2, can tie a lot more knots then they realize. Tie your shoes? Tie a jacket around your waist? Those are legit knots. You may not know the names of the knots but you can tie them.

@neil can I tell you all their names? No. But I know this one is for an adjustable slide under load, this one is for joining yarn invisibly, etc

@neil In Cubs I learned the never-used-since skill of tying a bowline around myself, making the knot with one hand.
I checked recently to see if I could still do it, and was amused to find that I could – but not if I was watching my hand.

@neil

After looking up the wiki on knots, more than I thought - even if I didn't know what they were called:

Reef
Slip
Noose
Granny
Overhand
Overhand Loop

@neil I was pretty interested in knots as a child, and I studied some knot theory for my math major in college which kept some of it fresh, so I can think of at least 12 off the top of my head

@justine @neil Arguably better than *frayed* knot…

@neil of those the only ones I use with any frequency are overhand, square, bowline, clove hitch, and midshipman's hitch

@neil All knot lovers (or haters) *reeeally neeeeeed* to watch The Truckers Hitch by Ylvis 🪢 🕺 💃 🤩 😃

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUHgGK-tImY

@neil 9 that I can remember now and have used in practice at some point: bowline (both the rabbit and slip-knot methods but not the “flying” method), twice round and two half hitches, trucker's hitch, Prüsik loop, Zeppelin bend, sheet bend, alpine butterfly loop, square knot, marlinspike knot.

I've tried to learn the rolling/magnus/icle hitches on and off but for some reason they just don't stick in my head.

@neil Also just found a Complete Knot List

https://www.animatedknots.com/complete-knot-list

@neil three or four but beyond the idiot ones they're kind of weird because i'm autistic and taught myself.
- shoelaces, doesn't count
- tie, doesn't count
- round turn and two half hitches, but this is the knot that everyone finds by accident
- zeppelin bend
- fishermans' bend
- alpine butterfly loop (great for when the squirrels nibble the washing line)
- sheet hitch? i can never remember the name of it

@neil a misspent youth in the Guides and Scouts clearly wasn't so misspent!

@neil
No highwayman's hitch? Surprisingly useful with a (long) dog lead.

@neil

Cleat Hitch
Square Lashing
Shoelace Bow
Three Strand Braid
At least one for a tie, but not the bow tie.

@neil Oh, I see now that I should have picked 11-20 and not 6-10. I can definitely tie 14 or 15.

Oh well, close enough.

@FaithfullJohn That was ...

(significant pause)

... novel.

CC: @neil

@neil Looking at your list I can add 2 more: normal neck tie knot (Windsor?) and, that reminds me, a hangman's noose, just getting me into the 11-20 category.

@neil
Oh... but I can come up with new knots endlessly!

@dmaonR @neil Bpld of you to assume that I can tie my shoes functionally

@ColinTheMathmo @neil 😊

@neil As an undergrad, before one formal dinner, there was a queue of gentlemen outside my room, because the news had got round that I knew how to tie a bow tie properly...

@neil damn now i gotta count em out

2 half hitch
taut hitch
square knot
granny knot
clove hitch
bowline
slipknot

maybe 1 or 2 more i'm forgetting, but that at least gets me in the 6-10 spot

i used to know more but i haven't used them in so long. i probably couldn't tie like a fisherman's bend right now without looking it up

@neil Never taught knots, and even now I have to search for videos on the rare occasions when I have to wear a tie.

@neil

Basically just the basic square knot (and, uh, probably usually a granny knot, because I don't pay attention). I do know how to do the fast loop method for shoelaces though.

Every now and then I think "I should know some of the basic useful knots!" and I sit down and learn and practice a few. But then I don't use them for anything and forget.

@neil I only know the Ian knot

@neil I CAN tie far more than I actually use. Also, many of them are just degenerate forms of other knots. Like a midshipman's hitch is a rolling hitch on a loop, and a rolling hitch is a half hitch with some extra turns.

Bowline, cleat hitch, sheet bend, rolling hitch, half hitches (for fenders), various stopper knots, slipknot (for sail ties) are pretty much all I actually use, with the occasional more exotic knot (alpine butterfly when I need a loop in the middle) in special circumstances.

@neil There are around 85 ways to tie a necktie alone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_85_Ways_to_Tie_a_Tie

Add to that (in theory - I've actually done around 10 of them), plus being in the Scouts, plus fishing, mountaineering and rope access, definitely in the 50 region.

@neil Do bows in shoelaces count as knots?

@neil

anyone is interested learning about knots, this is an excellent book, probably cheap 2nd hand

oh . .not so cheap !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashley_Book_of_Knots

@slothrop @neil When I'm teaching sailing I love it when a student is a climber. They usually know the knots better than I do and are a lot more careful about tying them, since they are directly betting their lives on doing it right, while sailors usually have a chance to just retie it if they get it wrong.

@mikej @neil yes, and that is pretty much exactly the reason I’m kinda scared of climbing (though I’ve tried it), and the knots therein in particular.

With whitewater kayaking, there’s all sorts of mistakes you can make, and some are potentially deadly; but almost none of them have to do with ropes and knots.

@neil I can do a granny knot.

@neil
Do people that voted 0 not know how to tie their own shoes?

@neil

for those of you into this sort of thing, this is an amazing book

https://store.doverpublications.com/products/9780486201528

@neil in regular use: bowline, clove hitch, figure 8, alpine butterfly, round turn and 2 half hitches, reef, european death knot, double/triple fisherman's, italian hitch, garth hitch, prussik, french prussik, klemheist. There are probably a bunch more that I could tie but rarely use.

@neil
If you know the Alpine you can do the truckers hitch.

@neil at least a dozen?

@FaithfullJohn @neil

Ummmm..... Okay, this is my first exposure to Ylvis, but...why isn't "Mr Toot" better known here? Or have I just missed the incredibly obvious everyone-knows-it thing again?

https://invidious.f5.si/watch?v=ASywAfBAVrQ

@neil
I’m about to resurrect my bowlin (?) tiying skills to see if I can get to the speed that impressed my colleagues on oil rigs (over 50 years ago). The said my hands were a blurr 🤣

@neil the double bowtie is very handy for nylon thread. Hard to impossible to undo though.

@slothrop @neil found the fellow south paw