Pompeii pattern

This time we take a look at the Pompeii pattern.
This interweave is quite a special one. It is in fact one of my favorite interweaves.

It is featured in “Round knots”, a book by Ron Edwards.
Tying this knot is not particularly hard, but it does require a bit of attention to detail.

It looks best when you revolve it on the mandrel, so you get the look of the entire pattern.

So, I’d like to show you how to tie it!

Just be sure to bring some patience along :).

The tutorial

For this knot I used up 2 pieces of gutted paracord. Each was about 6 feet long which was enough to tie the knot onto a mandrel about 1.3 inches wide. I recommend using the video tutorial found below, but the tying process is also described for those with experience in tying turk’s head knots.

The knot is interwoven into an 11L6B turk’s head knot.

So, to start I used the lighter of the two cords (white) and tied a 3L2B turk’s head. I then used enlargment process 2 to enlarge the knot into a 7L4B turk’s head. Using the enlargment process 2 again I was able to tie an 11L6B turk’s head base knot.

We now need to add the interweave, which is done with the darker of the two cords.

So, the run list for the knot is the following:

We start on the left side of the standing end of the base knot.

• u1-o3-u1-o1-u3-o1-u1
• u1-o3-u3-o2-u3
• u3-o6-u3
• u1-o1-u2-o2-u1-o1-u1-o4-u1
• o1-u1-o1-u3-o1-u3-o3-u1
• o1-u1-o2-u3-o1-u4-01-u1-o2
• u2-o4-u1-o1-u4-o1-u1-o2
• u1-o4-u1-o1-u3-o4-u4
• u1-o1-u4-o5-u1-o2-u4
• u1-o1-u4-o3-u1-o1-u1-o2-u1-o4-u1
• o1-u1-o1-u2-o1-u3-o1-u3-o1-u1-o3-u2
• o1-u1-o2-u1-o1-u1-o1-u1-o2-u4-o1-u1-o2-u1-o2
• finally, tuck the working end under two to complete the sequence.

The video tutorial: