Fun with String: A Collection of String Games, Useful Braiding and Weaving, Knot Work and Magic with String and Rope(Dover Children's Activity Books)

Ranging from tricks and games to serious knotwork and netting, this illustrated volume offers more than 150 applications. Includes 70 knots, plus instructions for braiding, weaving, and other crafts. If you want to know what you can do with string, you need look no further. This book gives more than 150 delightful and practical uses carefully selected from magicians' and seaman's manuals, craft books, accounts of native games, and other widely scattered sources. Ranging from tricks and games to serious knotwork and netting, they will keep you entertained while opening up a host of new crafts and recreational areas.For those interested in magic and party games, 32 tricks, including escapes, dissolving loops and the cut and restored string, are described. A section on some 70 knots, with all the standard knots and many special ones, will be especially helpful when decorative or ornamental effects, extra strength, speed or other special requirements are called for. For craftspeople, a special section on squareknot work, one of the traditional sailors' crafts, tells how to get started and how to make such projects as belts, ties, hammocks, a tennis net, and a fish net. Other craft sections tell how to make rugs, chains, a rope tree climber, small weaving articles and other useful items, and how to do braiding - three and four strand, round, square, spiral, and flat - for a number of other projects. A final section introduces some of the finest examples of string figures from native cultures all around the world.Anyone who works with yarn, thread, rope or other forms of string will want this book for the handicraft areas it introduces and for the many tricks and games it provides with which to entertain one's friends. The recreations and serious uses will provide readers, both young and old, with many hours of interest and entertainment.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Magic with String and Rope The Dissolving String Hand in Pocket The Two Captives The Cut and Restored String (1) The Cut and Restored String (2) The Magic Loops Fingers and Thumbs The Nose and String Trick The Ring and String Trick The Scissors and String Trick The String in the Buttonhole The Dissolving Knot The Laced Fingers The String through the Fingers The Magically Tied Knot The String and Straw Trick String from Nowhere Through the Fingertips The Ring Magically Knotted on a String The Vanishing Knots The Knotted Rope The Decapitation Rope Trick The Dissolving Loops The Chevalier Rope Escape The Bound-wrist Rope Escape The Thumb-tie Escape The Great Chair Escape The Neck and Knee Rope Tie The Behind-the-Back Rope Tie Dissolving Knots The Twentieth-Century Rope Tie The Chair Rope Tie "Knots, Splices, and Fancy Knot Work" Knots Elementary Knots Half Hitch Overhand Knot Figure-eight Knot Stevedore's Knot Knots for Joining Two Ropes Together Square Knot or Reef Knot Granny Surgeon's Knot "Sheet Bend, Weaver's Knot, or Becket Bend" Double Sheet Bend Becket Hitch Heaving Line Bend Carrick Bend Hawser Bend or Half Hitch and Seizing Bend Reeving Line Bend Bowline Bend Fisherman's Knot or Englishman's Knot Double Fisherman's Knot Knots for Securing Ropes to Rings or Spars Clove Hitch Timber Hitch Timber Hitch and Half Hitch Two Half Hitches Killick Hitch Rolling Hitch Magnus Hitch Lifting Hitch or Well-pipe Hitch Fisherman's Bend or Anchor Bend Studdingsail Halyard Bend Studdingsail Tack Bend or Topsail Sheet Bend Slippery Hitch Lark's Head Treble Lark's Head Catspaw Blackwall Hitch Bill Hitch Knots Used to Make a Loop or Noose Bowline Bowline on a Bight Spanish Bowline Double Bowline Running Bowline "Slip Knot, Slip Noose, or Running Knot" Crabber's Eye Knot or Crossed Running Knot Buntline Hitch Fisherman's Eye Knot or True Lover's Knot Half Hitch and Seizing Midshipman's Hitch The Clinch Outside Clinch Inside Clinch "Hackamore, Jar Sling, or Jug Sling" Masthead Knot or Jury Knot Tomfool Knot Shamrock Knot or Japanese Masthead Knot Artillery Knot or Man-harness Knots Used for Shortening a Rope Sheepshank Man-of-War Sheepshank or Knotted Sheepshank Overhand Knot for Shortening a Sling Ornamental and Other Knots Three-Strand Turk's Head Four-Strand Turk's Head English Diamond Knot Monkey's Fist Crown Knot Wall Knot and Double Wall Knot Wall and Crown Knot Double Wall and Crown or Man-rope Knot Matthew Walker Knot Double Matthew Walker Knot Lanyard Knot Diamond Knot Whipping and Seizing Whipping Seizing Round Seizing Flat Seizing Racking Seizing Splicing Short Splice Long Splice Eye Splice How to Make a Grommet Square-knot Work How Square-knot Work Is Done Making Successive Rows Pointing Square-knot Work Flats Spiral Formations Open Mesh Work Half-Hitch Work Length of Strands Tension Hooks Square-knot Belts Square-knot Shade Pulls Square-knot Neckties Square-knot Centerpiece Square-knot Handbag Netting and Simple Knot-work A Netted Cord Hammock A Tennis Net Knotted Bags A Portiere A Tied or Knotted Cord Hammock A Fish Net Useful Things Made from Rope and String Clothes-rope Rugs Spool Knitting Watch-chains Made of String Flat Plaited Cord Belts How to Cut a String withotu Knife or Scissors A Rope Tree Climber An Anti-slam Device Wrought Mats Indian Belts How to Make and Throw a Lariat Weaving A Cardboard Loom for Weaving A Hand-woven Bag Hand-woven Mats A Doll's Hammock A Circular Mat and Tam-o'-Shanter Tablet Weaving Daisy Mats A Pillow Top Braiding Braiding Simple Three-Strand Braiding Three-Strand Solid Braiding Four-Strand Spiral Braiding Four-Strand Square Braiding Four-Strand Round Braiding Four-Strand Braiding over Double Strands Flat Braiding with Five or More Strands Eight-Strand Round Braiding Round Braiding over a Band Braided Bracelets and Rings A Braided Dog Leash A Braided Whistle Lanyard Braided Jute Yarn Sandals Rugs Made of Braided Jute Yarn String Games and Figures String Games and Figures General Instructions A Fish Spear An Outrigger Canoe Man on a Bed Carrying Wood The Caribou An Eskimo House and Two Eskimos Running Away The Tern A Man Climbing a Tree An Apache Door The Fighting Headhunters The Leashing of Lochiel's Dogs The Setting Sun Osage Indian Diamonds Bagobo Diamonds The Sea-cow or Dugong Cheating the Hangman The Sawmill Bibliography