zlacker

>>zinger+(OP)
Cool website. When I was a teenager, I spent a week every summer learning to sail at a sailing course. So, I learned quite a few of those knots. This brings back good memories. As, I'm Dutch, the names for these knots in English are a bit challenging for me. And honestly, after 35 years, I struggle to name a lot of these knots in Dutch now. But I still know and use a few occasionally. A lot of that becomes muscle memory. If you do use them often enough, it kind of sticks. They are like nice little 3D puzzles and there's something satisfying when you figure out how they work. It can be fun to figure a few out while fiddling with a bit of rope.

The practicality of knots and their traits is what drives their use. When you deal with boats, you need these knots to perform and not come undone when you are not expecting them to (which could be dangerous). And you also need them come apart when you need them to.

Properties like that are what makes a lot of these knots so useful. Technically, you can get by with knowing only a handful. But there are a lot of specialized one with niche usages.

>>jilles+uj
As a younger I became obsessed with trying to make a Monkey's Fist from having heard about one from a Leave it to Beaver episode (a rerun on TV, please, I'm not that old). I had to figure it out myself though.

There is a very nice animation on the site for the Monkey's Fist (where I just now learned the finishing touch to deal with the loose end of the line).

https://www.animatedknots.com/monkeys-fist-knot