Monkey Fist

This is my current desktop wallpaper.  I took the picture in color, but it's so much more interesting in black and white - the gray background is pretty much true to it's actual color, but the blue bits in the line fall away so that you can see the shapes instead of the color. 

 
For the non-nautically inclined, the knot in the middle of the picture is called a Monkey Fist and it can be found on the end of many types of line.  This particular line is a halyard for our signal flags and provides a counterweight of sorts to the rest of the line.  We also put Monkey Fists on the end of lines that we heave over to tug boats or to the shore since a line itself would be floppy. 

My lines aren't usually this sloppy, the halyard was in use at the time and the line hadn't been resotred to it's normally orderly state.  Then again, the normal orderly state isn't as photogenic - I've tried.

Comments

[Sue H]

That is so cool! Wonder if my newly navy son knows that one!

[Jennifer]

Ooh - I love the monkey fist. Primogeniture is great at making them - maybe he's got a future in the Navy?

[Kate/Massachusetts]

Oh, I love this one! I've got to learn to make it! I have really been enjoying reading your blog. "Who's your daddy?" made me laugh!