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Only knot I know and I use it frequently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowline Knots are incredibly situational which makes learning a lot of them (through practice) difficult.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a reason scouts require you to tie so many knots. Not that any scout remembers their knots longer than needed pass that requirement, but it is still important and once in a while they do need them.
The scouts require a bunch of utterly terrible knots. They include the Granny Knot which you never actually want to tie, only to avoid tying by accident. They include the Sheepshank, which is quite possibly the worst way to shorten a line ever invented. Etc.
I did this for a while after seeing that video, but after some of my shorts ended up tightening into a knot that I couldn't get loose easily, I gave up on it. I instead just use the "Ian Knot" that I use to tie my shoes. It's very quick, I already use it all the time anyhow, and it rarely goes wrong. (Sometimes, I think I end up with an end through a loop accidentally, and have to fix it.) Learning this extra knot di…
Life is too short to make simple things more complicated.
But if you're a nurse and wear scrubs all the time, then it might become worth spending time upfront perfecting it.
Only knot I know and I use it frequently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowline Knots are incredibly situational which makes learning a lot of them (through practice) difficult.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Knots in general are a harmless and occasionally useful pasttime for many people. In fact I have a length of rope under my desk I will occasionally pick up and practice a few useful knots in just to keep them in my muscle memory. It's similar in many ways to people who solve rubix cubes or play with fidget spinners.
And you never know when they'll come in handy! As a negative proof, I recently found myself trying desperately to remember how to tie a bowline hitch to stake down some garden stakes, and something in the "out of the hole, around the tree, back into the hole" was just not happening for me. Ended up just quadruple knotting and praying.
I found myself in a similar situation taking my kids crab fishing. We were quite high above the water so I was trying to tie the thin string on the net to the bucket so we could lower it into the water to fill it. After trying to think of the fancy way of doing it I just went with doubling up the string and tying a round turn and two half hitches, an embarrassingly simple knot which has most of the advantages of anything more complex.
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It somehow reminded me of this: (How to open a door - Finnish instructional video from 1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wof0xPUmW38
I’ve spent decades learning to enter and exit doors more efficiently for motivated to apply the principle of martial arts ‘flowing movements’ to everything and found this video charming and accurate. In a climate with -20C temps outdoors every wall second you have a door open translates to fractions of a firewood heating log, so teaching good door etiquette conserves energy waste. But even where it’s not an environme…
I like to call it "moving with intention" in my head. Proactive movement rather than Reactive.
Smooth is fast and fast is good - but there's nothing wrong with smooth and slow as well!
I lived several decades knowing only the standard set of knots (square, granny) that every six-year-old knows. Recently, due to Scouts, learned more and I can't believe how often I use them. "Dryer's busted! My DIY laundry line sags! What to do?!" "If only I could make a loop that won't move in the middle of this rope!" ... and... this knot is new to me. I'm stoked to add it to the brainbox. Way to go, OP!
Life is too short to make simple things more complicated.
I got through an entire day yesterday in massively oversized gym shorts, by simply forming a standard loop, and wrapping it _twice_. That extra friction (the second wrap) has worked for years on shoes, boots, and, very large shorts I will not be learning a fancy knot because I have no need