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Comment by dougalm | Hacker News Reader

> a great stopper knot (Oysterman’s Stopper Knot)

Also known as the Ashley stopper knot! I've started keeping a short length of paracord on my desk to practice knots during video calls. It makes a great fidget toy. The Ashley stopper is what I've been tying this week and it's such a gem (but a little harder to untie than I'd like).

ABOK is the classic. But I was surprised to learn recently that it's not the final word on knots. Superior knots like the Zeppelin bend don't appear in it and there have even been useful knots invented since it was published. Geoffrey Budworth's "The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Knots and Ropework" includes knots that were invented in the 80s.

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I did this during COVID lockdowns (I never did get locked-down, being medical staff, but I had plenty of boring moments with nothing to do otherwise).

I wound up learning 20, and one of the GPs challenged me to tie them all blind-fold. Which I did, and won a metre of liquorice!

How did you tie the liquorice though?

I was generous and there was quickly not enough to tie even a half-hitch.

Seconding the shout-out to Budworth's Ultimate Encyclopedia. Best knot book I ever had. Not as comprehensive as The Ashley Book of Knots, but an extremely clear & thorough survey of the field nevertheless. If there's one knot book to own, that's the one.

> I've started keeping a short length of paracord on my desk to practice knots during video calls. It makes a great fidget toy.

This is literally what I started doing like 6 months ago, and I went from knowing only how to tie my shoes to having a great repertoire of knots. It’s great to have a couple hanks of paracord in the car now to tie stuff down, and more versatile (and safer) than the bungee straps.

see also rok straps (https://rokstraps.com/pages/rok-moto) and ratchet straps, though neither are fun enough to involve knots.

> I've started keeping a short length of paracord on my desk to practice knots during video calls

What a great idea. I just started learning knots. What do you use to tie onto? Some knots require something to which to fix.

Not the parent, but I cut myself a nice stick, divided it into shortish lengths of three, probably about 20cm, sanded them down. Three sticks lets you practice a number of knots, and I stored them tied with two lengths of rope (the fantastic hitch, forget what it's called, but two of them are brilliant for bundling poles together).

Then I just carried that around in my bag, or in a drawer at work, and when the opportunity presented itself, I practiced.

Yeah, I similarly have dowels floating around my desk for tying hitches. But I don't have a good solution for practicing knots that are meant to be tied under tension, like the "trucker's hitch" family. I've been considering getting some small dock cleats and screwing them to my desk.

a plastic dock cleat hot glued to a piece of wood works pretty well and is fairly cheap

I've started the same habit. Practicing Chinese Button Knots today.

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