So far we talked about making two knots: A granny knot and a square knot. We demonstrated this using a single strand of two separate ropes.
For now, that will be the last time we will be using a single strand. Because in rope bondage, we’re going to fold our rope over, pulling the two ends together, and forming a double strand.
This double strand has some characteristics: it has one end with two ends of the rope. This end is called the “running end.”
It has another end that is just a fold of itself — this end is called the “bight end”
From here on out, we’ll talk about the running and and the bight end of your rope.
Typically, when we do rope bondage, we start a tie on the bight end and continue down the body using the running end.
The word ‘bight’ comes from Old English and means “bend.” You might have heard it used when referring to the shape of a map where you see a bend in a natural land formation.
From here on out, all the Shibari we do will be double strand tying, which means we are working with both strands (and, ideally, keeping them together as we go).
Next we’ll learn about tying your first knot: a single column tie. To do this, we’ll make a square knot, but unlike the last lesson, we’ll do it using double-strand ropes. The same concepts apply, but this time, you’ll use two strands to make a square knot instead of one.