A Method for Learning Knots

Here's a recipe for deepening your knot skill.  Tie your knot then take photos of it as you untie it.  Rotate the knot to capture the shape from multiple viewing points.  When you reverse the order of your photos and page through them, you have created a step by step procedure on how to tie that knot.

This accomplishes two important dynamics that deepen your knot skill: 1) Photography motivates you to spend time and absorb the shape of the knot.  2) Photography documents your knot method for future viewing and reinforces memory of it over a longer span of time.

If you're motivated to do more, then draw them!

Here's an example, using the fisherman knot.  It's in the order that it was photographed, starting with the finished knot followed by the stages of untying it.

Study of these images begins to reveal the key shapes that make up the fisherman.  Imagine a loop.  An elbow is made with a twist of the loop.  The end of the rope reeves through the two loops of the elbow.  Then the rope is finished.