Page 160 - The Pocket Guide to Outdoor Knots

two half-hitches, and such sort of things…
(James Fenimore Cooper, US novelist— Afloat & Ashore, 1844)

Bowlines are knots that form fixed loops in cordage, while sheet bends join the

ends of dissimilar lines. Despite their separate uses, they share an almost
identical layout, although the load is imposed on each knot in a different way.

Both, through their nautical names, are associated with use aboard boats and
ships, although they may—like so many other knots, bends and hitches—have

originated in the hands of men and women on land. Stone age folk certainly
knew the sheet bend, which in nets is known as a mesh knot, while weavers tie it

a special way to fix broken yarns (when they call it a weaver’s knot).