Crafting – Modern Anachronist

Tablet Weaving (the beginning)

In which your author begins to explore yet another rabbit hole to improve his Norse kit.

When I bought my tunic added some trim to the collar and cuffs that really improved the look, but that trim was pricey.

How awful would this tunic be without the trim?

Playing with the box stitch.

A friend has asked me to make a leash. Her color & design choices are a bit boring in my opinion , so I’m trying to find a way to jazz it up without going contrary to her desires.

She asked for a handle without a wrist loop, so I’m going back to basics, but as usual I’m going to get a little funky with it.

Every kid who has ever gone to a summer camp knows this knot. Tied with annoyingly slippery plastic lace to make a key fob, it’s sometimes called a gymp.

4 strand box knot. Or 4 strand sinnet. Or crown sinnet. Or gymp.

Handle wrap experiments

Or more messing about with Paracord.

Adding a comfortable grip to wooden handles.

The pink is a common whipping (ABOK 3442).

The yellow is a French whipping (ABOK 3450).

Both of these are much better whipping knots than tool handles. With the common whipping, the wrap isn’t round because the cords under the wrap make it oblong.

The half hitches in the French whipping make it uncomfortable to hold, in my opinion. If the whipping was tied on a line, the half hitches would lay better in the hollows between the yarns. Some folks like that ridge, but it never seems to fit my hand. It does look nice though.

The West County Whipping (ABOK 3548) makes a nicer handle (again, in my opinion) because it is symmetrical. The half knots on each side mean it isn’t round, but it is symmetrical.

Now here’s where I went a bit off the rails. Since the West County Whipping ends with a square knot, why not begin with a square knot and add some visual interest?

Terrible colors, but they make the pattern easily visible

The West County Whipping is just a half a square knot on each side (left over right, flip 180 degrees, repeat)), so even if you struggle with the square knot, you should be able to handle this one.

Embellishing the cobra stitch/ Solomon’s bar.

Transform the classic paracord cobra stitch into a vibrant accessory with creative color combinations and unique knotting variations.

All the cool paracord kids call it the cobra stitch. Ashley calls it the Solomon Bar (ABOK 2496). In any case, it’s simple & fast to tie and makes a great sized lanyard or bracelet.

But it’s boring AF. So I had to see about making it fancy.

Hatband for the straw hat

Sorry, this one happened too quickly for pictures. Seriously, once I started tying it just flew between my fingers.

The construction of the snake knot has the cords reversed on the inside. (Red is wrapped around black.) This means that the colors of the True Lovers Knot in the center are opposite the snake knot for a bit of visual contrast.

Paracord hatband

I’ve been playing with rope/cord/line for my entire life. Sometimes more successfully than others. After making the lanyard for my wife’s cane, I decided that my hat needed some color as well.

8 Strand Herringbone Braid Variations.

So I started playing with paracord and wanted to do some experiments with color.

This is an eight* strand herringbone braid in two colors. I find it interesting how changing the order of the colors changes the overall appearance of the project.

So far, the eight strand herringbone braid is my favorite braid. The biggest reason is that when it’s evenly tensioned, the finished braid is square in cross section. It’s quite striking visually and feels very interesting.

Category: Crafting