Page 40 - The New Encyclopedia of Knots

The tails should be on opposite sides of the knot, and in really heavy ropes or particularly stiff ones
can either be seized or half hitched back onto their standing parts. The bend is perfectly symmetrical,

and the two bights will take up right angles to each other when under load (figure 20.3).

Carrick mat: with the standing part on the left, form a bight to the right taking the end back under the
standing part, and make another bight underneath the first but bringing the end back over the standing
part. Then reeve the end through (figure 21.1) from the top left to bottom right under, over, under,
over; then take it under the left-hand side to meet the standing part (figure 21.2). You have now

formed the basic pattern of the mat, and follow it around with the working end of the rope again and
again (figure 21.3) to produce a finished mat. The more circuits you make, the larger the mat
becomes.

figure 21.1

figure 21.2