So many knots!
As promised, here is a little more information on the odd knots and notes I’ve been finding at trolley and bus stops in San Diego. I finally located my knot book and read it in relation to knots I’ve been seeing and especially the knots in the bit of twine I took from one of my trolley stops. I know what you’re thinking: now some pair of lovers/spies/pranksters will not be able to leave cryptic messages to one another.
My knot book.
Not to worry, romantics, I took a non-noted knot. By the way, the actual title of the book, which I received as birthday present from a trapeze friend, is The Essential Knot Book for Boats by Colin Jarman. The present also came with a few lengths of rope, which I dutifully knotted with some of my favorite knots from the book.
Some of you may recall that I was once a trapeze catcher, educator and circus rigger — but I only needed to know three knots for that job: the bowline, the clove hitch and the figure eight loop. Some of the knots I’ve come into contact with, on public transportation corridors, appear in the book and others don’t. One of the knots I found is quite possibly the coolest knot of all time, and, of course, I have a working theory…
Handcuff knot?
The most frequently occurring knots I’ve found are both in my knot book. I’m speaking of the bowline on the bight and the Spanish bowline. Both are designed to hoist a person either out of the water or up a mast on a boat. Both leave our Mad Knotter with two loops in which to place a note. Of course, as was pointed out by a friend on Facebook, a handcuff (or hobble) knot will also give you two loops and I have indeed seen one of these in use (see left).
Easy(ish) knot to tie.
The knots most frequently used to hold the loops to a post or bench seem to be either the trusty bowline or a round turn and two half hitches. I recall from my circus rigging that the half hitch is usually used to lock down other knots like, my favorite, the clove hitch. It occurs to me that clove hitches are rarely if ever used by the Mad Knotter — and probably because they need a load on one end and a little old note weighs next to nothing. I managed to tie a round turn with two half hitches to a chopstick (above) and a bowline (below).
The King Bowline.
The interesting thing about half hitches is that you can pull them taught after tying — and they don’t need a load to stay tied. A better knot is what my old boss called “the king of knots” or the bowline. This knot can be used to tie anything to just about any other thing, to make a loop that is as strong as the rope used to tie it, and is easy to untie. This makes it about the perfect knot for touring circuses.
Bosun’s Chair or Note Knot.
A bowline is made by creating a loop (also called a turn) in a line, which some people call the “rabbit hole.” The “tree” is the rest of the rope (or the dead end) and the “rabbit” is the (working) end you tie into a loop. You do this by taking the rabbit out of the hole, around the tree and back into the hole.
If you double your rope, tie a bowline and run the dead (non knotted or working) end back through the loop, you get the bowline on the bight, bosun’s chair, or one of the Mad Knotter’s favorite note holders. I managed to tie one in… I don’t want to tell you how long.
Really effing hard to tie!
Probably the coolest knot was the one I took from the piece of twine at the Morena Linda Vista trolley station a few days ago. It appears in my note book as an alternative to the bowline on the bight and works the same way. But it is much, much prettier. And about one thousand times harder to tie!
If the double bowline was hard to learn, the Spanish bowline was next to impossible. I don’t mind telling you that it takes time and patience to tie a knot like this and it feeds well into my theory…
If you know this knot, please comment.
My theory is incomplete, though, because I can’t name a number of the other knots I’ve seen on my commutes. Like one of the first ones I saw. The one that held the note that had all the ink run out of it in the rain is pictured below. What is this knot!? There are others I don’t know either, that don’t appear in my knot book, but probably take a while to tie. So here’s my theory, for what it’s worth…
The time between trolleys or buses depends upon when you’re riding. During rush hour, they come about every seven minutes; at slower times, 15 minutes and 30 minutes at night. This gives our Mad Knotter enough time for certain knots at certain times of the day. More difficult knots, perhaps, at night and easier, quicker knots during rush hour. That is, if our Knotter is also the Noter. It could be that the person leaving the notes is not the person leaving the knots; I know I left a note I wrote in a knot I didn’t tie…
Two bowlines and a bosun’s chair.
The other part of my theory is that most of the knots seem to have a safety theme: holding fast, pulling you out of the drink and what ho. So is the person leaving them doing so to help? I think so. I hope so. I also hope, as another friend on Facebook mentioned, that it’s lovers leaving each other notes along their coincidental commutes.
But until I find out the real reason for these knots and notes, I’m — wait for it! — tied up in knots about it.
KevinSix.com 