Definitely not a knot lesson

Knots! I really struggle with learning knots. To make things worse if I do manage to learn a new knot, and I’m super pleased about it, you can bet your life that I’ll find myself stood in the middle of a storm with a 4×4 tarp blowing around my ears and a session that starts in 30 minutes trying desperately to access that blank space in my mind where that knot used to be.

It’s about that time that I realise that my long term memory said “No, thanks” to that useful bit of information.

It’s not just me. Over the years of working with children, and especially home educated children I have found that one of the hardest things to teach are knots. To say the subject can be dry is an understatement, it’s just not a lesson anyone wants to do but it’s so important.

I realised that I needed a way to learn knots that would mean I retained the knowledge and for me that means repetition but I also need to enjoy it. If it’s boring, my long term memory just isn’t interested.

So over the years I have developed a few really good techniques that not only teach the knots but do it in a way that helps me remember them and is engaging enough to teach them to children without them really being aware they are learning bushcraft knots. I’ve whittled it down to a handful of the key ones that have worked for me and children here.

Bracelets
My go to choice is the humble bracelet. It ticks all the boxes. Ask children if they want to help you make a taut line hitch for a guy rope and unless those particular children are outdoor enthusiasts you’ll be talking to yourself in seconds. Ask them if they want to make a bracelet to take home and you’ll be breaking up fights over who gets the best coloured thread in no time at all.

Thankfully pretty much any knot repeated makes an appealing pattern and the best thing is you can finish it off with the taut line hitch for that guy rope you were after them learning and you’ve got yourself some top notch stealth learning in.

Using the bracelets also means that you can progress to natural cordage for more advanced learning once you’re hooked.

Windchimes
This is a great way to learn and teach the clove hitch (both hooking over and threading around) and also the lark’s head knot in a practical way with lots of repetition to help it stay in. I have thrown in a few decorative macrame knots here but if that’s not bushcraft enough for you, call them DNA and cobra knots to keep your bushcraft credibility intact.

Be careful where you hang them though. I hung one of my examples in a tree after a session and a concerned member of the public contacted the local council about our group practising ‘voodoo’ in the park.

Spiders in webs
This is another great way to teach and therefore learn the clove hitch but involves more repetition.  You can start and end with a clove hitch or be more ambitious and use a clove hitch for each knot.

Raft building
I use this to learn and demonstrate lashing knots.

I could go on but you get the idea. I can remember all of my basic bushcraft knots from visualising me teaching them to others and I find that doing it this way is not only effective but it’s also very therapeutic. I’ve used all of these methods with whole families from toddlers to grandparents and the act of sitting and creating with a group is always rewarding and educational.

So often the grandparents will remember a knot and what they used it for, the name they gave it and very often a way of tying it that I never thought of. For example, my daughter remembers the clove hitch by calling it the ‘pretzel knot’.

Fair Isle Rope Basket Making
I was recently inspired by one of the Woodland Ways instructors to up my game when he introduced me to rope basket making using the critically endangered craft of Fair Isle knotting.

How could I resist the opportunity to get in another knot AND help spread the knowledge about this wonderful craft to families outside the bushcraft loop.

The knots themselves are not too complicated but with such a beautiful end product they really tap into that learning for a purpose that is so important for me and the people I work with.

With peak foraging season coming up these really have that hook to integrate key learning.

There are some great free tutorials out there and these are really affordable to create and the technique has scope for exploring so many different materials.

So get out there and get knotting!

(Look out for my next blog: How to use critically endangered British craft to survive the horrors of soft play.)