I've been carting around my first climbing rope for several years now. While I am certain it could catch a fall, there is no reason to keep using a rope that has been / should be retired. At the same time, it seemed wasteful to get rid of a beautiful rope, not to mention the fact that I had some sentimental attachment to it.I remember buying that rope. I didn't know enough about ropes to choose wisely, so I asked another climber. He was brand loyal to Mammut, so I bought a 10.2mm 60 m rope. It was tan, blue and red. It really wasn't the best rope for me, but I remember how exciting it was to get my rope. I also bought nine quick draw sets, 30' of webbing and four lockers. I could climb without others. That rope was the freedom to climb when and where I wanted. Five years later, it was time to say goodbye.
I coiled the rope, which over those five years had acquired the name "Mr. Happy Pants," and put him in the closet. Mr. Happy Pants sat in the closet at my house, then at my apartment, then at my next house, then in a storage shed, then at my next apartment, and then at another storage shed. The list is probably longer than that, but the point is made. He sat, unused, taking up space, and adding to the weight of moving trucks. Somewhere early in that list, I decided that Mr. Happy Pants should be a rug.
My original idea was to coil him tightly, then use a needle and thread to tie the coils together. Since I did not know how to sew (other than some very poorly affixed patches on jeans), that seemed like an enormous undertaking. An article in Climbing Magazine suggested coiling the rope, then caulking the back together, than duct taping the caulk. I bought the caulk, but this seemed like not an ideal rug. Who wants a rug made out of silicon and duct tape? Years passed, and a friend, facing a similar dilemma found this Super Topo post: http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=298197. Thank you Crag Q, you inspired a friend to weave a rug that would eventually inspire me to do the same.
After another year of moves and procrastination, I decided it was time. I ran into an issue straight away. Crag Q says to print out a pattern on a large format printer. Going to Kinkos to have this done was enough to put Mr. Happy Pants back in the closet, but Crag Q says the pattern can be traced by hand. His pattern is something like 16x19 inches, yet he says to trace out a 2" grid. A two inch grid gives you a 26 inch pattern, and I didn't have paper that size. So, I set about eyeballing it.
I allowed for three inches per intersection, planning on a four pass rug. Using masking tape to tack Mr. Happy Pants to the floor, I set out making the initial knot. It went surprisingly fast, but it wasn't square. It wasn't even close to square. After the first pass, I had created something ovoid with a corner. Undaunted, I carried on, with the hope that the second pass would add some rigidity, at which point I could force the shape. With each pass, the shape became more square.
After the third pass, the grid needed to be tightened up, and made more regular. This was the hardest step thus far. Each weave had to be pulled tighter, then the slack pulled through the rest of the weave. Tightening took about as long as the entire process to that point. While it was impossibly slow, it paid off, and something that looked much like a rug was born. It was time to start the fourth pass.
For the fourth pass, the weave was very tight, making the going slow. In addition, each pull required the full length of the remaining rope to be pulled through. On passes two and three this was also true (starting in the middle seemed like a bit much to eyeball), but I could pull the rope a full row of weaves (the entire width of the rug). On the fourth pass, the weaves were so tight pulling it through was creating enough friction to melt the sheath. I cut back to three weaves, then two weaves, then one. The process was painfully slow, and required a tool (a pen) to spread the weaves enough to feed the rope through. After spending almost as much time on the fourth pass as I did on all of the previous steps, only one step remained.
With this pattern it seems everyone wonders what to do with the ends. I decided to weave the ends once more, then cut the ends and melt them. The friction in the four pass rug seems like enough to not back out, and the large melted rope end probably will not fit through the weaves if it does. Pushing the slack back through the weave should only take a minute if slack forms at the ends. With the ends woven in, cut and melted, Mr. Happy Pants is now a rug.
When I do this again, I will probably stick with a three pass. I think if one were clever, they could get a three pass and a two pass out of one rope. The two pass would probably be nicer for low traffic, high dirt locations, and the three pass for the inverse. Those who have climbed a long time / fall a lot will likely have many ropes, and a three pass rug seems like it would make a lovely gift for the non-climbers in your life. That will be the fate of Mr. Happy Pants anyway. My vagrant lifestyle does not require rugs, so this rug will be part of a thank you gift to my brother and sister-in-law for letting me stay in their spare room for what will cumulatively be months.
More images available here: https://picasaweb.google.com/aillaud/RopeRug#
No comments:
Post a Comment