Blake’s Hitch can save your sad, floppy tarp

A loose tarp is one of my pet peeves at the campsite. It’s noisy in the wind, sags and collects water, and just looks dumpy. An easy way to fix this is with a moveable knot like Blake’s Hitch. You can also use it on one end of a clothes line to get it nice a taught. When using it on a tarp I like to use Blake’s Hitch on the grommet, because it’s easier to slide the rope through a grommet than it is around most trees. On the tree side a bowline will work great.

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History of the knot:

The first known presentation of this knot was made by Heinz Prohaska in an Austrian guides periodical in 1981; in 1990, he presented it in a caving journal, Nylon Highway. Separately, Jason Blake discovered the knot for himself and presented it to the arborist community in a letter to Arbor Age in 1994, after which it was enthusiastically adopted by arborists. It has since become well known under the name “Blake’s Hitch”.