Page 244 - Barbara Merry "The Splicing Handbook"

pencil clockwise with the index finger of your right hand to form the rope strand.

The number of twists you put into the strand will determine the firmness of the
finished rope. You should stop twisting before the rope kinks; if it does kink, just
turn the pencil counterclockwise until the kink disappears.

Grasp the pencil with your right hand and keep tension on the strand
throughout this step. With two fingers of your left hand, grasp the strand midway
between the pencil and the hook, forming a bight. Pass the pencil behind the
hook and back again, inserting it through the bight of strand in your left hand.
Don’t let the strand go slack.
You now have three parallel and highly twisted strands. Grasp them with a fist

as before, and twist the pencil counterclockwise until it stops. The finished rope
won’t unlay of its own accord. Ropemakers refer to this characteristic as
balance.
Tape the rope just shy of each end and cut off the ends. You now should have
a short piece of three-strand rope that looks as though it was cut as a sample
from a large spool of machine-made rope.