Take two pieces of rope and some light cord, or, if it is to be the handle of a basket, two pieces of heavy rattan, No. 5, and some No. 00 rattan with which to do the knotting. If you use the rattan be sure to soak it for ten minutes in warm water and choose a soft piece of the fine rattan for knotting. Hold the heavy pieces of rattan side by side, lay an end of the fine rattan upon them at the middle (see Fig. 28), with its tip turning toward the left, and hold it there with the left hand, while with the right you bring the long end up and around both of the large pieces of rattan up and under the short end of the fine piece. It is then brought down and around the two large pieces of rattan and the end is passed down through the loop made in starting the hitch (see Fig. 29). Draw the tying strand up tight and bring the long end up and around the large pieces of rattan and up under the loop it left in starting (see Fig. 30). Take care to keep the fine rattan wet so that it will be very pliable; if it dries it will surely crack as you tie it.
Net Making
If you would like to make a ping-pong net or a net for crabbing, you will find it quite easy to do and very interesting. After you have made these small nets you may feel like trying a tennis net if you have plenty of time and patience.
Fig. 31
At a hardware store you can buy tightly twisted cord of the size you wish to use in making your net. It is generally sold by weight. If you are planning to make a ping-pong or tennis net you will also need a heavy piece of cord for the head rope. A crab net would of course be netted on to an iron ring attached to a long wooden handle. A needle such as is shown in Fig. 31 may be made quite easily by any boy who can whittle.
Fig. 32
When you have wound your cord on the needle, stretch the head rope taut between two convenient points, the backs of two chairs, for example, and begin at the left by tying one end of the cord to it. Make a loop the size you wish the mesh to be and fasten the cord to the head rope with a clove hitch, or two half hitches (see Fig. 32). When you have worked as far as you wish, get on the other side of the net and work back again. This row of meshes and all that follow after are made by fastening them to the upper row with a sheet bend (see Fig. 32). After the second row is finished come around to the other side again and knot the third row. When the net is wide enough knot it to a piece of rope the size of the head rope with a row of clove hitches.