Page 41 - Derek E. Avery - 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