Take 5 minutes out of your day, find a small piece of rope (or CAT5, headphone wire, USB cable), and actually tie the knot with your hands. It's super easy to pre-visualize the knot forming and you can learn to tie the knot in any orientation after just a couple tries.
Being able to adjust the tension on the line after tying the knot pops up in all manner of practical situations. This was my gateway drug to the wonderful world of knots.
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EDIT: to encourage people to actually tie the damn thing, here's a picture of my computer mouse cable around the handle of my coffee cup: https://i.imgur.com/ZN4WXoB.jpg (in the "right handed down" orientation, as opposed the the "right handed up" direction from the instructions).
I rarely find situations where I want to use this knot over a trucker's hitch (which trades some ease of adjustment for significant mechanical advantage when tensioning). I have combined the two from time to time (using the adjustable hitch to secure the working end)
That's fair, I too use a trucker's hitch for the ridgeline of a tarp.
However, I'll use adjustable grip hitches for the guylines. That lets me freely adjust how my tarp is placed and holds up the tension reasonably (from experience, the friction hitch on paracord could do with tightening every 1.5 days or so). It's also quicker to tie and uses less cordage, so that's a plus.
Combining the two straight up never occurred to me. Will definitely give that a shot :)
Take 5 minutes out of your day, find a small piece of rope (or CAT5, headphone wire, USB cable), and actually tie the knot with your hands. It's super easy to pre-visualize the knot forming and you can learn to tie the knot in any orientation after just a couple tries.
Being able to adjust the tension on the line after tying the knot pops up in all manner of practical situations. This was my gateway drug to the wonderful world of knots.
---
EDIT: to encourage people to actually tie the damn thing, here's a picture of my computer mouse cable around the handle of my coffee cup: https://i.imgur.com/ZN4WXoB.jpg (in the "right handed down" orientation, as opposed the the "right handed up" direction from the instructions).