So far I’ve been able to make 2 knots. The knot here is called, 吉祥結 (Jíxiáng jié) which is known as the “auspicious knot” or the “good luck knot”.  This knot is usually hung up around to bring good luck. It is also sometimes associated with the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin. I originally had the idea to repaint a longboard but since Chinese New Year just happened I had the idea to this instead and it was a nice way to use my climbing rope. Once you’ve had a certain amount of falls on a rope or used it for long enough you have to retire it for safety reasons. Most people use old ropes to make floor mats or use them for straps for bags but I wanted to do something a little different from that. The knot on the left is the larger, more complete knot with the decorative little loops in the diagonal areas while the knot on the right is the knot after the first step when you get the initial knot set up. I cut a couple different lengths to test out the feasibility of using it for knots and the lighter was used to burn the end of the cut rope to prevent fraying.

Here is close up the rope I used, just an old 10mm climbing rope that I cut into ~1m and ~2.5m sections. The for the first attempt, I cut the rope too short (~1m) and struggled to get the proper knots in because the rope was so much thick than the normal cord that’s normally used in tying these knots. Therefore, I had to cut a new length which was as bit too long but it works well enough overall, especially for a progress report. As can be seen in the first photo, there’s a lot of leftover rope but that can be incorporated into more knots or just left to be “oversized”. I was thinking of building a bigger knot with the leftover rope, namely making a 盤長結 (Pan Chang jié) or endless knot. That knot is associated with one of the eight symbols of Buddhism and is associated with the belief that the cycle of life has no beginning or end. It is believed that it can impart good fortune to those who wear it or observe it. The only reservation I have right now (especially after doing the initial knots) is that climbing rope might be too stiff and too thick to do such an intricate knot. However, I’d still like to try it and I do have old paracord that’s been sitting in my room for a few months. That rope is much thinner and more flexible so if I can’t work with the climbing rope I can try with the paracord. I’m interested to see if I could pull it off with the climbing rope though.

The original climbing rope is pictured here. It’s been retired after years of service.