I want to catalogue my knotty book collection (and braids and any related crafts) and this seems like a good place to do it. Well, the main site is where it should probably end up, but here's a good place to work on it, I can add curating on the other side.

The Ashley Book of Knots
Author: Clifford W. Ashley
ISBN: 0-385-04025-3
Hardcover: 640 pages
Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (June 21, 1944)
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 1.6 inches

I meant to start last year with this series of knots, but I lost them in the fall move. Being one of those people, I stewed and searched instead of just retying them until late 2009. Of course, when I had retied 1.5 letters I then found the originals. Like wearing a rain coat to ensure that it won't rain that day, I should have started retying sooner. 8)

In any case, we start with a 'K'. Clever people like you can probably guess why, but if not, all will be revealed shortly. The 'K' is tied with a series of square flower knots with a hexagonal flower knot in the middle. I initially thought I might need to tie a heptagonal or octagonal flower for the centre to get the branches of the letter at the correct angle, but a test with a hexagonal centre proved to be close enough to perfect for the job.

Let's start with the good news. The blogiversary tassels have been awarded to the 2 commenters. I was going to give one and keep one for myself, but as there were only the 2 commenters and I want to encourage y'all, I'll give them both away and just make myself one later at some point.

Should I try this again? D'ya want free stuff? 8)

Sooooo, remember what I said in the first post that this daily posting thing was doomed to failure? This is past 2 months (or so) is pretty much what I meant. But, since I am trying to give myself something of a personality adjustment, I will not yet admit complete defeat. There are still delusions of backfilling in the missing days and continuing onwards as well.

If you would like to help, I would completely adore that. Guest posts of a knotty or braiding nature are totally welcome. Words of encouragement would be, y'know, encouraging. Even constructive criticism would be gratefully accepted. I do my best to answer questions and take requests under advisement. 8) Email or comments all work.

Procrastination is a strange thing. I was doing pretty well with the daily thing for at least 2 months and then mid-March I stumbled big-time. Then the longer I wasn't posting, the less incentive there was to post. I came up with a few ideas to help me keep up, but never did them. I tied a number of knots including more Ashley knots and some seasonal ones not to mention finishing the give away tassels. While I haven't scanned the seasonal knots, I had long ago scanned the give away tassels. Why not post them? It's quick, no? As the offspring are fond of saying: "I dunno..."

Seen on this blog. As just about everyone says, it sounds like fun. It also sounds like a chain letter but on blogs, but at least it's opt-in versus opt-out. 8)

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It’ll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it’s going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Who’s in?

I fixed up yesterday's blogiversary post, but I don't know what that means to the RSS feeds, so I thought I would mention it here in this post.

After I posted yesterday's link dump a few more came in. Since I keep links in tabs until I post them (I really should find a better method because this one often makes me sad when my browser crashes) I thought I'd take this opportunity to clear them out.

A knot-heavy description of the events at annual Cub Scout Freeze-Out which took place on February 1, 2009 (presumably) near Austintown, OH.
http://www.vindy.com/news/2009/feb/01/scouts-warm-up-to-freeze-out/

It's my one month blogiversary! With only a little bit of cheating, I've posted everyday. So, to celebrate I'm giving away a tassel with a hawk's eye bead in the centre and seed bead details. I was also thinking to give away the materials I used to make the tassel (a spool of cord, a selection of beads, and tassel fringe). Should it be all one prize or two? What do you think? I'll be documenting the creation of the tassel on the blog, of course. To enter to win the tassel, just leave a comment with a valid email (or register and post) on this post. Entries will be accepted until Feb 28, 2009 and a winner selected at random declared shortly thereafter.

Edit: see what happens when you post while half asleep? Left out about half of what I was going to say... *sigh*

To start a 4 sided good luck knot, fold your cord in half and put it down, then pull 2 arms out of the side to make a plus (+) shape. The longer your arms, the easier they are to control and, obviously, the more working length you need for your cord. While the surface you're working on is likely to have more friction than a polished scanner glass, even so the cord can still get pretty unruly like the picture to the left. A beginner is likely to want use some techniques or tools to control the centre. A popular choice would be a board with pins. The most obvious for many would be your hand.

This one has 18 facets (18JBD). The base bead is less football shaped (kinda pointy towards the poles, vaguely oval/eye shaped in cross section) and more oblate. The best I could do on short notice, but overall I like the resulting globe knot better. The question is do I like it better because of the core bead shape or because of the more facets to the globe? I'm going with the facet idea.

Administrivia: reflecting back on the fortnight or so that I've been blogging, this is the length of post I had envisaged, rather than the multi-page magazine articles I've been writing. I'm thinking this is much more sustainable, not that that's going to stop me from going on and on at some later point. 8)

Don Burrhus has written (at this point) 3 books and sells kits to go with them. Two are about Turks Head Knots and the most recent is about globe knots. I have all of them, but I'll tackle the Turks Head kit and books more thoroughly at a later date.