Post Bishie Con Cleanup - Bondage Time!

Bishie Con continued to be excellent on Sunday, and then Christmas took over for a week, and life was crazy.. but it was all worth it! My wonderful, fabulous, esteemed parents got me a new camera!!! I haven't had much time to play with it yet, but pictures should be getting better around here, from now on.

I have cleaned up and updated the merchandise page, and the conventions page. I also fixed my time zone, so the posts actually show the correct posting time... oopsie.

But most importantly, I am posting the step-by-step instruction pictures from the bondage panel Saturday night! So without further ado...

Square not vs Granny Knot
The square knot is the good knot - it won't come loose like the granny knot does. It's pretty easy to tell the difference when this knot is by itself, but you'll want to practice it a bit so you can tell the difference when it's piled on top of other knots too.

This is a square knot. This is what you want!

This is a granny knot. BAD! Look at how the circled part is different than in the square knot.

The rest (there's lots!) after the break:


Half Hitch, and Double Half Hitch
The half hitch is pretty useless by itself, but the "double half hitch" gives you a loop that slides open and closed easily. This could be useful for securing the end of a rope around bedposts or other furniture, but you do NOT want to use it on a person. Since the loop tightens when pulled on, that could be very bad.

This is a half hitch.

This is a double half hitch.

When you pull it tight, this is what it looks like.

Bowline
The bowline is how you make a loop that doesn't slide when pulled on.

Start with a small loop, a fairly substantial distance from the end.  Make it look exactly like this - it does matter which part of the loop goes on top!

Put the end of the rope through, front to back. (Don't pull it all the way through.)

Go around the top piece of rope, then put the end through the small loop again - this time, back to front. (It doesn't matter which way "around" the top piece of rope you go - as long as you go through the loop back to front afterwards. If you look at the Modified Bowline below, the last 2 steps, you'll see that I go "around" the opposite way.)

Pull it tight, and you should have a nice loop that doesn't move!

Modified Bowline - on a wrist!
Since the loop on a bowline doesn't get smaller/tighter when pulled on, it is okay to use around wrists/ankles. But, unless you are using really big, squishy rope, you probably want to loop around more than once to make it more comfortable. (This one is tricky to make lay nice - if you have trouble, it's not just you!)

Start with the same small loop, at least a few feet from the end. (The more loops around the wrist you want, the farther from the end you need to start.)

Wrap the end of the rope around the wrist. Go through the loop, front-to-back, EVERY time you go around.  You can go around as many times as you have rope for!

Go through the loop one last time, front to back. The tricky part is to make each loop around the wrist have the same tension, before you tighten everything. Also, make sure there is a little space so you don't cut off circulation!

Go around the top part of the rope, then back through the small loop, this time back to front.

Pull everything tight. If it's done right,  you should be able to yank on the rope as much as you want, and the rope won't tighten around the wrist!

Single Column Tie
This is actually a much easier way to tie a single wrist or ankle. (You can then attach the wrist/ankle to any other object. The "Two Column Tie" below is for taking two wrists (or ankles, or one of each) and attaching them to each other, instead of to some other - potentially far away - object.)

Start with your rope doubled up. You can do this with one single long strand of rope - it just takes twice as long to get the same number of loops around, so why?

Go around the wrist a few times.

After your last loop around, take the end (the one where the rope is folded in half), and lay it over all the loops of rope.

Then, pass it under all the loops of rope. (So, in this picture, the end where the rope is folded in half is going off to the right. The two loose ends are going off to the left.)

Tie the first part of a square knot. (At this point, it doesn't matter which end goes "over" or "under." But now, the folded end is going off to the left, and the two loose end are going off to the right.)

Tie the second half of the square knot. Make sure you have a square knot and not a granny knot! Look at the circled part to be sure, and compare to the square vs granny pictures.

When you pull the rope, the square knot will change shape a bit, but as long as you have a square knot and not a granny, it won't actually come loose. Single column tie, done!

Two Column Tie
And now, to tie two wrists to each other! (Again, this can be use on two ankles just as well, or one ankle and one wrist, or two wrists from different people, etc...)

Start with the rope doubled again. (I'm using a short piece of rope, only 10 feet long. You'll probably want a longer one.)

Have some space between both wrists while you wrap the rope around - a whole extra wrist's worth is probably about what you need.

Go around however many times you want, and end up with the beginning and end of the rope pointing opposite directions like this.

Now, cross the ropes so they are parallel to your "columns", but perpendicular to the rest of the rope. Don't pull too tight, you still need the space between the wrists.

Bring each end down between the wrists, around the rope on the bottom, and up the other side. (This means the rope will switch hands underneath the wrists.) Now you can pull the rope tight.  Even after you pull the rope tight, there should be a little extra space around the wrists so circulation isn't cut off. Yeah, you probably needed more space between the wrists than you thought...

Now, tie the first part of a square knot.

Pull that tight, and tie the rest of the square knot - make sure it's not a granny!

Voila!

If any of these steps are hopelessly unclear, feel free to comment and I'll try to fix it! (Compliments are always welcome too. ^____^) Thanks again to everyone who came to the bondage panel - I'm glad I found enough rope for everyone, and I hope you all had fun!!