Trying to Remember the Clove Hitch

2023

 

As children, most of us learned to tie useful knots as part of a practical education.  Do you remember them all?

 

Knotting shoelaces?  Check.  Square knots for packages?  Sure!  

 

But what about the clove hitch?  Why should that one be hard to get right?  In every western movie the good guys effortlessly use it to tie their horses to the hitching post on the way into the saloon.  Every logger confidently drags logs with it.  All (well, some) boaters can toss one around a bollard.

 

This sculpture celebrates trial and error in getting the clove hitch right.  Exuberant tossing of the free end over, under, and around!  One of these ways has gotta work... 

 

With some practice, the hitch works again!  It feels as good as when you got it right as a kid.