Knotcraft by Stuart E.

Grainger

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Above is the cover of one of Stuart E. Grainger's earlier books.The following are exerpts from Stuart Grainger's most recent book "Knotted Fabrics". "Netting Techniques" is the chapter these passages are taken from. If you have problems with this page E-mail the Webmaster. You can order his works from Edward Grainger via E-mail and this can be arranged with credit card. His current prices are as follows: "Knotted Fabrics", ISBN 0-9530398-0-3, hardback, 96 pages, 115 line drawings and 48 b&w photographs, published 1 May 1997 9.00 Pounds. "Creative Ropecraft", ISBN 0-948788-35-6, hardback, 128 A5 pages, published 1975, fully illustrated with line drawings & photographs 9.95 Pounds "Knotcraft", ISBN 0-9515506-0-8, paperback, 76 pages, line drawings and photographs, published by the I.G.K.T. 1989 3.60 Pounds "Turkshead Alternatives", ISBN 0-9515506-2-4, paperback, 32 pages, line drawings and photographs, published by the I.G.K.T. 1991 2.20 Pounds "Ropefolk", 15 pages, line drawings and photographs, published by the I.G.K.T. 1986 1.65 Pounds

Netting Techniques
The argument that netting is not a fabric and therefore has no place in this book is not one that will be entertained. As was mentioned briefly in chapter 5, in most minds it depends whether a piece of fabric consists of more holes than material, if it does, then it is netting, but it is still fabric.

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fig 8i.

Numerous knots may be used to produce netting, some very practical and of commercial value, others more decorative. The simple and practical ones are very well known and well. documented. Probably the simplest form of netting is that which was once widley used for making string bags and it consists of a series of double Overhand or Thumb knots, as illistrated in Fig 8i.

Many other forms of netting, including fishing nets, require the use of a netting needle. Netting needles are widely available in a variety of sizes, the smaller ones being made in a moulded plastic, the large ones are still to be found made of hard wood. Fig 8ii shows a netting needle with and without cord. The purpose of a netting needle is two fold, first to enable the working end to be passed through the mesh easily and second to hold a reserve of cord that can be paid out as work progresses. The choice of needle size must be governed primarily by the first consideration, bearing in mind that the needle's bulk will be increased by the cord wound onto it.

fig 8ii. Netting, like other forms of knotted fabric, can be made either by using a single strand, usually with a netting needle, or by knotting togather a number of strands in parallel rows of knots. Traditional fishing nets were made, using a single strand and the knot used was the Sheet Bend, but not tied as a Sheet Bend is normally illistrated and taught, but the other way up, a form sometimes known as the Weaver's Knot. See Fig 8iii. The mesh in

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fig 8iii. the row above through which the new knot is to be tied is turned through ninety degreeswith one hand to form a Half Hitch, the netting needle is then inserted and withdrawn in one movement, the cord being passed around one leg of the mesh between entering and leaving the Half Hitch. Young women used to make commercial fishing nets in this way, their movements after long practice being faster than the eye could follow. Several other knots can be used for either single strand or multi strand netting, but in single strand netting, the knot is tied vertically, whereas in multi strand netting, the knot lies horizontally. Linked Overhand Knots, the Reef Knot, the Carrick Bend and the Granny Knot all may be used in this way, also a knot sometimes known as a Square Knot (which causes problems, because the Reef Knot is also named Square Knot on the western side of the Atlantic), and sometimes the Japanese Bend, which is how it will be known here, to avoid confusion. Fig 8iv. shows the five above-mentioned knots. fig 8iv.

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The knot is here refered to as a Reef Knot, is arguably something else, the problem being that it is not a Square Knot or a Thief Knot either, although it is closest to the last. A Reef Knot is, strictly speaking, tied with two ends, as also is a Square Knot, but most of my readers are likely to be familiar with the Reef Knot and it's appearance, so pedantry will be abandoned and a knot that looks like a Reef Knot shall be known as one. The Reef Knot is not an ideal netting knot, because it easily slips and becomes displaced, however it does have one major advantage over other netting knots, in that it allows the use of a unique netting technique, illistrated in Fig 8v, which permits continuous knotting of an almost unlimited length of cord, wound in a ball or on a reel of a size far larger than the mesh of the completed netting. This method was published in "Knotting Matters" No. 54 in December 1996 by Gordon Court of Somerset, who described it as being in use in Portsmouth Dockyard. fig 8v. Instead of pasing the working end of the cord through the meshes already formed, in this method a bight of the cord is passed first upward through a preceding mesh (see Fig 8v. 1) and is pulled out until sufficiently large to allow the ball or reel of cord to pass through it. The reserve of cord is passed upward through the bight from underneath, (Fig 8v. 2) The next step requires that the end farthest from the working end be pulled steadily (Fig 8v. 3), so that the Half Hitch which had been formed around one leg of the mesh above becomes transfered across the other leg. The bight can be pulled out again (Fig 8v. 4) until it is big enough to allow the reserve of cord to pass through it downwards from above (Fig 8v. 5), thus forming a Cow Hitch through the preceding mesh (Fig 8v. 6), which can be re-adjusted to form the upper loop of a Reef Knot (Fig 8v. 7). In the drawings, in order to save space, the ball of reserve cord has been shown smaller than it could be in reality. In fact it could be several times the size of the mesh. Netting with a single strand, wound on a netting needle, is similar to other single strand techniques, such as Half Hitching, usually being worked within a rectangular boundary cord, reciprocating from side to side, top to bottom. Netting may also be worked diagonally, making the first mesh across a corner and then adding a mesh at each end of every succeeding row. Sometimes a net may be made in cylindrical form, when the top edge may be delineated by a boundary cord streched around suitable working supports, but the remainder of the net below the upper edge would be worked hanging from the top. It is possible to produce a net working concentrically, but normally there is little point in doing so, because if a circular, disk shaped net is required, it is better to work outward from the center, using a multi strand method.
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Of the six knots mentioned so far as netting knots, only three are regarded as commercially viable, the Sheet Bend, overwhelmingly the most common, the Reef Knot, because it allows the continuous technique described above, and the Granny Knot, which every Boy Scout has been taught to avoid and revile, because it is a dangerous bend, but for netting in large material it is preferable to other knots and is often used for scramble nets, being more difficult to displace than either the Reef Knot or the Sheet Bend. All three of the knots described as commercially viable can be used in single strand netting, but the Sheet Bend is not usually found in multi-strand working,

fig 8vi. probably because, unlike the other two, it is asymetrical. Fig 8vi. illistrates the use of four named knots in multi-strand netting, the two in the lower line being primitively decorative. Discounting the Double Overhand Knot as a serious netting knot, because it is relatively weaker and more bulky than the commercial knots, the other three previously mentioned knots are principally valued for decorative netting, although the Linked Overhand Knots make particularly good climbing nets, their large size providing a secure footing, they are not well suited to single strand use. For purely decorative and fabric-forming work, where the Macrame style double netting with multiples of eight strands is prefered, the four knots which may be considered are the Reef Knot, the Granny Knot, the Carric Bend (often known in this context as the Josephine Knot) and the Japanese Bend.

fig 8vii.
This ends the presented work of Stuart Grainger, and is most of pages 60-65 of his most recent book "Knotted Fabrics." Stuart E. GraingerYou can reach Stuart by e-mail and ask him about his other 8 books or Gripfids.

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