Dear All
My 11 year old friend Sophie has shown me a knot she had serendipitously discovered and been successful in using to tie down tents at her Guide camp.
Careful investigation shows it to be a series of double overhand knots, tied as an extra turn over the rope, rather than two loops round the standing part and the working end passed through (I found an example of the way she ties them at http://www.iland.net/~jbritton/doubleoverhandknot.htm)
Updated Link > www.pssurvival.com/PS/Knots/Knot_Knowledge_Photo_Illustrations_2004.pdf
She was complimented on her use of the knot by the Guides, and I said I would mention it on here. It actually makes quite an interestingly shaped chain. I’m not entirely sure if they work the same way as Granny Knots or Reef Knots, though, because of the extra twist on them. I shall let her experiment and see… 
Regards
Glenys Chew
Dear Glenys,
…and how, exactly, did she use a stopper knot as a tie down? As for the reference to a chain - I guess that you may be referring to the fact that there is more than one twist in the knot, otherwise where does the chain arise? Sign me a little mystified for now and looking forward to your usual beneficial lessons … ???
SR
Dear Squarerigger,
Why thank you - what a lovely compliment to pay me. I’m so glad I checked emails just before I logged off because it was midnight.
Sophie made a chain of them the same way you would form a Solomon Bar (Portuguese Sennit), only without any central core - she just tied successions of them. But I don’t have it to hand in front of me to see which way they lay. It made a nice chunky rope, and I think it was used as an alternative to the ‘overhand tangle’ which often helps tie down things.
Actually, it might look quite good with a couple of lazy strands running down. I shall set her to work. My own efforts have to wait until I’ve got an appointment, or a queue in front of me, or I’m the passenger in the car (knot-tying cures my travel sickness).
I’ll try to find it tomorrow and pop a photo on, together with the explanatory drawing she made for me of how she tied it. But if I can’t, it may be the middle of next week. I’m hopeful there is a Hot Air Balloon Festival at Heaton Park, Manchester, for us to go to after I’ve done some shopping and plagued a librarian. Sunday is church, Monday is my Mum’s birthday and we’re going to the Richard III Museum & Yorvik in York, and Tuesday is appointments/full shopping day. Hence my being up at midnight… does anyone do a yawning smiley :
Regards
Glenys
I share SquareRigger’s puzzlement as the verbal hint of the girl’s
rigging doesn’t square with me. 
–looking :o forward to some image of this tie-down trickery.
As for the stopper use of the Dbl.Overhand, I’ve found it in (all?) three
versions in commercial fishing structures: as maybe best known & shown
(by URLink above) in symmetric form; and oriented both ways in the biased
form of the Anchor Bend. --along with the single Overhand, but seldom if
not at all the Fig.8 or Stevedore (Fig.10).
–dl*
Ah. A small detail missing from my overtaxed attention span.
She’s not tying with one single cord, but with two. I’ve taken some photos, but I’m having trouble getting photos with good focus on them. I hope to be able to attend a photographic course in September-time. But I’m not doing so well saving up for it yet.
I’m uploading the photos, but apparently Yahoo photos is closing down and I’m now to use Flickr. The link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/11285160@N04/ - I just hope it works ok.
Regards,
Glenys
Dear All,
I’ve also introduced Sophie to the forum, and she’s seen the posts and pictures. She’s going to experiment with the D-O/h Chain a bit more
Regards
Glenys
successful in using to tie down tents
Having seen the ornate chain formed wtih Dbl.Oh. knots, the
next question is how this facilitates tying down tents!?
As for her using two cords not one, hmmm, were they
different colors this would make a striking pattern?
Cheers,
–dl*