Tie a square knot and a bowline
Thirty minutes at the kitchen table with two pieces of rope. Three knots, in the order kids can learn them, and when to use each one.
- Time
- 30 min
- Cost
- $0
- Ages
- 5 and up
- Where
- Anywhere
What you need
- Two pieces of soft rope or cord about an arm's length each, two colors if you have them
- A chair leg or a broom handle to tie around
- A small bundle to tie up: sticks, pencils or a rolled towel
Rope safety: read this first
- Nothing around necks, ever, not even as a joke. Rope stays on chair legs, broomsticks and bundles.
- These are practice knots. Nothing in this plan holds a person, climbs, or lifts anything heavy.
- Don't join two ropes with a square knot to hold weight. It's a binding knot for bundles and bandages, and it can slip loose under load.
Steps
- Warm up with an overhand knot. Make a loop and pass the end through it to tie an overhand knot.
- Square knot: right over left. Cross the right end over the left and tuck it under.
- Then left over right. Cross the left end over the right, tuck it under and pull tight; check that it lies flat.
- Use it for what it's for. Tie a square knot around a bundle, then see how it spills open when pushed.
- Bowline: the rabbit and the tree. Make a small loop; pass the end up through it, around the standing part, and back down through the loop.
- Race and blindfold round. Tie each knot five times, then try the square knot with eyes closed.
Square knots in a row · eyes closed?
Signed off: can do this.Signed by Date