for the most part, all of the knots i tie i tie with nothing other than my two bare hands, and occasionally a marlingspike. i would like to know some information concerning tricks people have figured out for tying some of these knots without using complicacted systems with multiple ropes, like having twine to tie a constrictor knot to hold your strands in place, or pinning a mat down on a nice quark board. for instance, i seldom actually tie a diamond knot, because it is so much easier to tie a footrope knot and then reverse it, because tying a diamond knot requires holding the strands in place while not letting various loops collapse, where tying a footrope knot is accomplished in distinct, easy steps easy to do with one hand occupied holding everything together. any suggestions?