Category Archives: Knots

Step-by-step knot tying tutorials

Yukon Outfitters Mosquito Hammock (unboxing + suspension mod)

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I snagged this Yukon Outfitters Mosquito Hammock from Woot.com at a great price. Woot sells items for a limited time or until inventory is exhausted (which ever comes first). This deal was only limited for 1 day. It was too good to pass up.

From the very beginning, I was going to replace the suspension system of the original hammock. I wanted to use the Dyneema rope I had on hand. I figured I would tie a stopper knot of some kind (or a bend knot at the ends) to make a loop. I did some research on Dyneema rope and found that knots tend to slip on Dyneema because the rope is slippery. Further research, suggested splicing an eye/loop instead of tying a knot. There are great references on how to do exactly that. I was able to splice my own with the tools I had on hand.

I also opted to use two SMC Descending Rings for the suspension system. To connect the hammock suspension to the trees, I ordered some straps from strapworks.com. The straps will be connected to the SMC rings via garda hitch (you’ll need a pair of rings to deploy the garda hitch).

I posted a video of the unboxing and the suspension modification. As stated above, I’m swapping the existing rope and carabiner suspension with a continuous loop of AmSteel Blue (Dyneema) rope and a pair of SMC Descending Rings.

Knots used: lark’s head (cow hitch), prusik hitch, surgeon’s knot, figure-8


Wrapping earbuds

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Coiling (or wrapping) earbuds seems to be a no-brainer. I used to wrap the earbud wires around my fingers in a circular coil. At the end of the wrap, I’d give a little slack and wrap that around the circular coil to keep the coil from unraveling.

There are two problems to this technique.

  1. There is a chance of becoming knotted when unwound
    • this can easily happen when one of the working ends gets fed into one of the circular coils
  2. The cinching of the circular coil can cause issues with the wires of the earbuds
    • the tight loops can cause the earbud wire to unwind like a pig’s tail (little curls where the tight loops were located)
    • damage to the internal wire causing one or both buds to stop working
    • the wires connected to the jack can become loose; again resulting in one or both buds failing

To tackle the first problem requires finding the right coiling method. Google search results showed the figure-8 coil to be effective and efficient. I’ve used this method for months. But I still secured the coiled earbuds with multiple tight loops and some half-hitches thrown in.

When wrapping the rubber band on itself for a single pass is called a lark’s head (cow hitch). Wrapping it an additional time is a prusik hitch (prusik knot).

I had to find another solution to locking/securing the fig-8 coil:

* This second video shows an updated way of applying the rubber band to the fig-8 coil: