Any good instructions for Pan Chang (Mystic) knot?

General Discussion
1

Hello all,

I tie Orthodox Prayer ropes and I’m always looking for a beautiful way to make a cross at the end of them. I ran into the Pan Change (or Mystic) knot and I just fell in love. I followed one website to make one but it was very complicated, had to have pins and a board, and also tough to memorize. I was wondering if anyone had a good set of instructions for how to make it on my hand or a pattern on a paper that I could print and weave through.

Thanks,
Avram

2

I can tell you where to get instructions to tie a Turks Head cross, see photo:

http://www.khww.net/photogallery.php?photo=113

You can tie this knot either with, or without the round base as part of the knot. It is tied with a single piece of string.

Do you have a picture of the Pan Chang (Mystic) knot? I don’t know a knot by that name, but if I can see it, I might be able to give you an idea of a different way to tie it.

Pat

3

Here’s a link to the Pan Chang knot and these are the instructions that I followed but I am looking for an easy way to make it:

http://www.co.middlesex.nj.us/culturalheritage/chineseknotting/panchang.html

Also, that Turk’s head cross looks great! The material I use is satin rattail which is like what is in the picture in the link above. When I’m done with my prayer rope there are 4 strings that are left and I’m basically looking for a cool way to make a cross out of them.

Thanks!
Avram

4

Lydia Chen in her book Chinese Knotting says one must start tying such complicated knots using diagrams and pins, and perhaps using bigger material until one may get accustomed to the forms of the knot ( i agree with this).

Eventually when one knows what one is doing one can tie any of the knots in her books in their hands.

Patience. Time. Practice.
Or you’ll become crazy with stress.

5

The New Jersey instructions are as good as any other. I would suggest taking the last picture and making it larger and pin it to something (a firm pillow, a cork board, a layer or 2 of cardboard, a folded towel, etc.) then carefully follow the cord paths pinning at the edges (as the is lots of movement in the body, so pinning in there will interfere with construction, although pins in the body that guide, but do not fix down cords would not be too much of a problem). A set of long tweezers (or long nose pliers) or a bodkin (blunt needle type object with an eye big enough to accomodate the cord you are using to tie the knot) will be useful.

This is the mechanics of the situation. What you are doing when tying the mystic knot (pan chang) is 2 plain weave patches, one over the other linked on all sides. A pocket with no open side to access the pocket.

6

I just reread the original posting and realized that I had not answered the question. Here’s a set of instructions for tying the mystic (pan chang) knot “in the hand” (http://www.seoulmaster.co.kr/gallery/master-09-micro10.php). My advice for using it is to make it several times with a loose cord before trying to incorporate it into your finished project. Refer frequently to step 17 to see where things are supposed to end up. Be prepared to untie the tangled mess on your hands many times before you get it right. When the entire knot has been interlaced, keep it on your hand for a while and start tightening things up slowly, taking care not to lose your landmarks (the ears). Be sure not to overtighten (if you need a tool (tweezers or fid) to loosen a cord segment before you can adjust it, you’ve gone too far).

With your 4 cord ends, you can either run the pairs through the knot in parallel (as an added bonus you can get really fancy with the ear loops) or tie the knot with just 2 cord ends and run the other 2 through the body and hide them there.