Oar Hitching

We have an inflatable dinghy that we use for our boat.  The aluminum handles of the oars are often cold and uncomfortable to grip.  In order to improve the grip and the look of my otherwise un-stylish aluminum handled oars, I added zig-zag "running" cockscombing or ring bolt hitching.  This is very simple to do.  Lash three strands to the shaft, hitch all of them in one direction, and then hitch them in the opposite direct.  Simply repeat until the desired length is covered.  The ends of the hitching are covered with 3 lead by 4 bight turks heads.  I can now row my dingy with a much better and more comfortable grip.  We'll have to see how the color holds up in the sun and elements.  The hitching shown is on page 64 of the The Marlinspike Sailor by Hervey Garrett Smith.  The turks head can be found here or in most any knot book.

Garden Tripod

We are growing sweet peas in a garden.  Sweet peas like to have a structure to climb.  For these tripods I used 3 lead x 4 bight turks heads tied with 1/4 inch manila rope.  To tie the knots I put all three sticks side-by-side, tied the knot, set the sticks into there position in the tripod and then worked the slack out of the knot.  I also added pieces of unraveled rope to the tripod to give the pea plants something additional to climb on (not shown).

Smart Charger

I recently got a new phone for my work.  Being a "smart" phone, it came with a USB charger which is about a 1 inch cube.  I had to put some kind of string onto it, but what to do?  The cube shape was intriguing, but with the two ends essentially unavailable because of the plug and the USB slot I was somewhat limited.  I eventually decided to put a simple 3 lead by 4 bight turks head on it in black and white.  I chose the 4 bight version so that the knot has symmetry on all four sides.  I may come back to this and try something different at some point.  I'm thinking it might also look good in a 5 lead by 4 bight knot with some smaller diameter string.