Page 282 - Lindsey Philpott "The Ultimate Book of Decorative Knots"

276 the ultimate book of decorative knots

Double Monkey Fist
If a single Monkey Fist has six faces (the number of
faces of a cube) then a cuboctahedron may be said
to be a cube whose corners have been modified to
form a Double Monkey Fist with fourteen faces
(cube = six faces; octahedron = eight faces; total =
14 faces).

Ashley’s version (#2206) of a cuboctahedron (C/W,
CC/W, C/W, CC/W).

of as a true Double Monkey Fist or dodecahedron,
having twice the number of faces that a regular

A cuboctahedron is a polyhedron (a solid object Monkey Fist has. Note that, because the ends do not
having poly- or many faces) with eight triangular meet in this first version of a Globe Knot, you must
faces and six square faces – fourteen in all. determine the number of circles you will need for
complete covering before you start. There is no easy
Each corner (junction of three square faces) way out of this. If you are covering a sphere of one
is therefore a triangle, and the former upright inch using a 3/32-inch cord (approximately 25-mm
square face has become diagonally the same height diameter sphere and 3 mm thick cord) you will need
as the original cube face, oriented now so that its to use five or six passes to get the right coverage,
corners are upper and lower, rather than northwest, depending on how fuzzy your line and how tight
northeast and so on. For us knot-tyers, this means you pull the individual parts. It is too difficult for
we have eight places (triangular faces) where there beginners to tie in the hand. Alternatively, a second
is a meeting of three cords (eight corners of the method of tying a real fourteen-faced Globe Knot (a
original cube) and six places (square faces) where cuboctahedron) is also shown, one by Don Burrhus
there is a meeting of four cords, as in the original six as a modified TH Knot and the third one as a
faces of the cube. The coloured diagram above from modified version of Ashley’s #2206.
Wikipedia may help you visualise it. The dictionary
definition also helps in visualising the shape:
A cuboctahedron therefore has 12 identical
axes (aka vertices) originating at a singularity or a
single point of origin, with two triangles and two
squares meeting at each axis. It also has twenty-four
identical-length edges, each separating a triangle
from a square as you can see in the diagram.
However, here is the knot as it is tied when
pinned to a board, and as shown in Ashley’s Book of Burrhus’s version
Knots, #2206, which he states is a cuboctahedron. If of a cuboctahedron
having fourteen
you count the number of faces where there are cords faces, built as a
meeting each other (not the spaces between) then 3B5L modified TH
I only count twelve, making this knot what I think Knot.