The step-by-step photographic guide to knots, plaits, mats and toggles for both practical and decorative uses. Here is the ultimate knot book. Usually the difficulty in learning to tie knots is that the demonstrator is facing you and the procedure is therefore being shown back-to-front. Here the reader can see the bights and tucks of each stage of each knot as if he or she were tying it, making the entire process explicitly clear. The book demonstrates, stage by stage and in 323 photographs, the tying of ninety-five knots, hitches, plaits, bends, rope and wire splices, sennits and decorative ropework mats, covering all the basics that yachtsmen or other outdoor sports enthusiasts need to be familiar with, and at the same time acknowledging the artistry of the Turk's Head, crown knots and ocean mats. The nature of rope and its lay are explained in the introduction to a book that will enable the tiro to become competent quickly and old hands to explain their expertise, be it during long winter evenings or as a pastime in the cockpit. Here, in fifty-one lessons, is knotting without tears - a happy combination of instruction and entertainment.