Not a long time ago I started using a "hacking knot" (aka
Hoxton/Chelsea/French/Parisian scarf knot, aka Snug Tug) to tie a
scarf. Outside of the scarf tying context, it's called the cow hitch
or the lark's head. It's rather neat to tie a scarf that way, not
surprising that it is common.
For a while now I was mildly annoyed by some home pants that have
drawstring belts, since I kept tying them with a bow knot (shoelace
knot), or a double overhand knot (half hitch), and both were
cumbersome to redo regularly. Wondering whether there is a better way,
I went searching, and after trying some methods that didn't work for
me (e.g., a slip knot was suggested by one article), and some unusual
knots that did work, but later turned out to be not as nice as more
common ones, I found the taut-line hitch (which is actually suggested
by WikiHow's article "How to Tie Pants Strings"): it is rather common,
referenced from the Wikipedia "knot" article directly, and works well:
you just move it to adjust, yet it doesn't loosen by itself.
Then I went on trying out various other knots, skimmed the Ashley Book
of Knots. though mostly read the Wikipedia articles. The article on
sheet bend knot has particularly awkward graphical and video steps,
and in a few more cases it was easier to look up videos on YouTube
after reading about a knot in Wikipedia, but generally nice
instructions and presentations are available.
I guess I don't have an immediate use for more knots (unless I'll
decide to improve shoelace tying, but the regular shoelace knot works
fine for me), but knots are fun, and it wouldn't harm to know what to
search for if/when I'll have a use for those.
