Parts & Rows

One of the most familiar ways to describe a knot is by its number of parts or leads. Parts correlate to the knot’s height - a 20-part knot is much taller than a 5-part knot.

The simplest way to count a knot’s parts is to draw a vertical line from the center of a top bight to the bottom of the knot. If you were to cut along this line, parts is the number of ‘strands’ you would need to cut through.

Cylindrical Knots

This Turks Head knot has 13 parts.

Mat Knots

This mat knot also has 13 parts.

Nested Knots

This nested knot has 14 parts.

Parts and Rows

The mathematical relationship between parts and grid rows is: Rows = Parts + (Bight Nests * 2) - 1.