Page 191 - Mario Bigon "The Morrow Guide to Knots"

The monkey's fist. also known
as the pouch or button, is a
typically decorative knot that
is also used in many practical
ways: it can hold heavy items,
such as pieces of lead, inside
its turns to give it weight
when it is used at the end of a
heaving line, and it forms a
knob which can substitute for
a modern but1an.
Method
There are no special
difficulties in making this
6
knot. Begin by taking three
vertical turns (1) around your
hand, Hold them with three
horizontal turns (2, 3). Now
make another three turns
around the horizontal turns
but inside the vertical turns
(4,5,6), producing a kind of
ball which is round in shape
when carefully worked (7,8).
The monkey's fist described
above is made by crossing the
turns in only three directions:
vertical, horizontal. and
vertical again. Better, more
compact and spherical results
can be obtained by increasing
the number of turns or the
8 number of times they cross
over. A trick to ensure that the
ball is round is to make it
around a small ball, which
then lies hidden inside the
knot.

, 00