The monkey fist knot is one of the most famous knots in the world, used for decoration and its use in adding weight to the ends of ropes for throwing ropes. Read the following steps to learn how to tie this iconic knot yourself.
Step
Step 1. Hold your hand
Monkey fist begins with outstretched arms as a frame for the initial pack. Use your non-dominant hand as a frame, and tie it with your dominant hand. Hold your frame hand so the fingers are straight and slightly spaced, and grab the length of the rope in your hand to tie you.
Step 2. Make three loops
Wrap the string around your finger from your little finger to your index finger three times, stacking each loop instead of stacking them. This is the initial shape of all monkey fists, so you can get rid of your frame hands now. Be sure to carefully hold the loop of rope as you continue.
Step 3. Repeat across
Pass one end of your rope into the loop you made, then wrap it around the loop with 3 more loops, making them perpendicular to the original set. Hold all the circles open and slightly loose, so that there is some space in the middle.
Step 4. Add a third layer
Pass one end of your rope into the new set you've made, and loop it around (but not the first set of loops) three more times, again in a perpendicular direction. This means that the three circles will go in the same direction as the first three, but wrap them so that they fill the open sides of the circle, creating a three-dimensional shape.
Step 5. Fill in the middle
For stability and weight gain, the monkey's fist knot requires a small, firm object in the center. The simplest way to do this is to tie a knot until there is no more string left at the other end, then tie the end of the rope into a pretzel knot and thread the end into the monkey's fist. If you choose separate objects, you can use glass marble or other round items of the same size.
The center can't hold the item well now, because it hasn't been tightened. Hold your object in one place and follow the next step to wrap the knots around it
Step 6. Tighten the knot
Once your knot has a core to tighten, pull through all the loops by pulling each end of the string in turn and stacking or guiding the messy loop. In the end you should have a spherical knot with a volleyball-like pattern around it.
If you're using the end of the string as the core of your knot, leave a little bit of string before the end comes off as you tighten the rest of the knot, and pull to tighten from the end. Insert a little extra with a pretzel knot when everything is done
