This throwback only goes back two years, in 2024 I made my Dad a long Turks-head knot pencil grip with hemp string.

I asked for hints for his birthday and he mentioned that the pencil grip doesn’t fit on mechanical pencils.

So I made him some more.

I’m still not confident with knot naming. The pencils in the photo above are laid out in the order I made them, from left to right. Rather than name the knots, I’ll tell you what went wrong. The first one I forgot to split the third time around so ended up with a different pattern. The second was too tight and I was not able to double the knot. The third was a little looser, so I doubled most of the knot, but couldn’t squeeze in the final doubling. The fourth I changed color and was still only able to double most, but not all, of the knot. The fifth I deliberately didn’t split the third pass. The sixth I was able to double some, but not all. The seventh, ah the seventh, came out as I wished, with all passes doubled.

Here is the video I referenced to make my knots: A Long 4 Bight Paracord Turk’s Head Knot (21 lead 4 bight)