This is a beautifully done website. I found a book on knots at a used bookstore and bought it. I got a few lengths of paracord and tried them all out. It's a great way to spend an evening. Quite relaxing and doing something physical with my hands was a great stress buster too.
Get a variety! At least if you hope to use knots away from home, like boating, climbing or camping. I’ve definitely found it useful to practice knots on different sizes, materials, tensions, etc., just because the ropes I get in the wild vary… for camping you might be using 1/4 inch or smaller, for a small sailboat maybe 1/2 or 3/4-inch, when I go on a houseboat every once in a while, it’s like maybe 1.5 or 2-inches diameter, sometimes old and fraying, sometimes nylon and relatively slippery, or sometimes a natural fiber rope that’s much grabbier especially when wet…
Knots really seem to behave differently on different sizes & kinds of ropes, and it can be hard to remember (for me at least) how to tie a knot you learned with twine on a bigger boat line. How easily they bind, how well they hold, and how easily they release also starts to get way more important when you’re outside and depending on the lines.
