~ Alaska Museum of Fancy Knots ~
~ Little Lump Knot ~
Diagram 26
...making sure the "complex crown plait" is properly tensioned, continue the plait toward the thimble end. You will stop approximately 1/3 the way up the thimble. (It should be noted here that if you stop too early, the knot will not look good at all!!...and if you plait further than approximately 1/3 of the way up, the knot will also not look very good!!...so it is up to you as a knot tyer(!) to figure out exactly where to stop plaiting!!!...I have no exact way to explain where to stop, so I am leaving this up to you to use your best judgement!!!...you have put a lot of work into this knot so far, and you want the knot to look as nice as possible!!!)
Diagram 27
~ "The Footrope Knot" ~
...now make a "wall knot" and let it hang down the knot approximately 3/4"(+-).
Diagram 28
...continue by going "over one, under one" back towards the end of the knot. Notice that the knot is "fairly tight" and more importantly it is symmetrical.
Diagram 29
...now make a crown knot. Notice that after making the crown knot each working end will fall "under" it's "pair". The rest is easy, as each cord will simply follow it's "pair" to the "end".
Diagram 30
...using the "self-threading" needle, take each cord and "follow the pair" to the "end" and at that point, each cord will go through the Footrope Knot and come out at the bottom.
Diagram 31
...here is the finished Footrope Knot before it is "tensioned". To tension the knot, use the "japanese marlinespike". I put a simple overhand knot in one of the cords to keep my place. I go through this knot twice with the japanese marlinespike. First, I tension all the cords at once. The second tensioning I work with each cord singly. If you do the tensioning "in order", the knot will be quickly tensioned and look perfectly symmetrical!
Diagram 32
...here is the Footrope Knot after it has been tensioned.
Diagram 33
Snip the ends as close as possible to the knot and use the japanese marlinespike to push them back under the Footrope Knot. (A pair of "fly-tying" scissors works perfectly for this!)
Diagram 34
~ "Finishing off the Little Lump Knot (finally)!!! ~
...now that you are done with the Footrope Knot, turn the knot over and begin finishing off the Little Lump Knot by making a wall knot and letting it drop down the knot approximately 3/4"(+-). "~~YES, the LLK is simply a Footrope Knot with a "cap"!!!"
Diagram 35
...now it is simply "over one, under one" back to the top exactly as you did making the Footrope Knot on the other end! If you keep the knot "fairly" tight and more importantly symmetrical at this point it will make it that much easier later to tension the knot!!!
Diagram 36
...now we come to the easy part!!!...I know it looks kind of confusing with those 8 stands going every which way, but we will actually be using 4 strands at a time, so it's not too hard to finish this knot off!!!...if you notice, I have marked 3 things to take notice at this point:
X: there are 4 "pairs"
G: there are 4 "gaps"
Z: there are 8 strands, but we will start out by getting 4 of them out of the way at once!!
...using only the "Z"'s, make a 4 strand crown knot making sure that the Z's fall into the "gap" (G)...
Diagram 37
...it will look like this! Note that these 4 cords will fall "under" it's "pair"
Diagram 38
...to make things less confusing, I tuck each of these 4 cords "under" it's first "encounter" (following it's "pair")...(*just one tuck, and we will finish these 4 cords off later.) I have used a constrictor knot here to avoid confusion, but while actually making the knot, I simply hold these 4 cords out of the way with my hand while working with the other 4 cords!...even after making hundreds of these knots I still tuck the 4 cords simply to make things less confusing!!!
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