Gentle Spiders,
For years and years, I could never figure out how to tie a reef knot;
"left over right and under, then reverse" may be fine if you have no
basic problems with "left" and "right", but that's not so in my case :)
The "left over right" part was iffy, but OK (even though, for some
reason, "right over left" movement seems to come more naturally to me),
and "under" was not much of a problem either, but the "reverse" was
incomprehensible... :) Which one is the right, and which one the left,
*after* the first (half-reef) exchange?
Watching Patty (Dowden) in Colgan's class in California 4 yrs ago
helped some (even though she was doing it waaaay too quickly for me
<g>); she watched the tails of the bobbins as they crossed, not the
threads, and they're easier to see. So I had the first half of the reef
knot straightened out ever since. But the second half remained a
mystery; as likely as not, I'd end up doing the same thing twice, for a
totally different effect.
Then came Cathy Belleville's Rosalibre class last October in Ithaca,
and I finally "got it" She taught us (or those of us who didn't know it
already) the Brugge tie-off, where you make a *whole row* of half-reef
knots first in one direction, then the other. And you always hold the
"newly engaged" bobbin in your hand, keeping it in readiness to swing
it over the one which had already participated twice and is being lied
down to rest. If you're moving to the right, it's the right-hand bobbin
which is held and which soars over and makes the first movement with
the next bobbin in line; going to the left, it's the left-hand one that
you hold onto a bit longer.
You do this 14 times in a row, it is no longer a matter of memory; it
becomes a skill, so I finally learnt which one was which - which one
rested, which one went on. So far so good, happiness all around... :)
But now, a new left/right question has suddenly struck and paralysed me:
I know how to make a row of half-reefs in either direction, which is a
major victory, especially since it means that I can now make a single
full-reef knot also (if with some extra concentration <g>). And the
half-knots in a row seem to slide under like they're supposed to. Most
of the time, anyway (why not all the time?).
But... *Does it matter* which row (left-to-right or right-to-left) you
*start* with????
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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