Wide Solomon Bar belt

Another one for the sale. This one is a wide solomon bar, again from fusion knots. I don't really like how this one turned out; there's a few inconsistencies in the weave which are surprisingly obvious, the pattern "slipped" so that the two sides are slightly offset, and the end turned out quite messy. I'm also not sure about the colours. I was in a hurry when I made it, if I'd thought it throught better to begin with I would have used a single black strand rather than two (meaning two less end to deal with), and if I had spent longer on it I might have found a nicer way to tie it off.

I was saving this buckle for a belt that used black paracord.

You can see here how it narrows and "slips".

The end was very messy.

The inside actually looks nicer than the outside.

When I was planning this belt I discovered some of the modified versions I could do. I just wish I could stop the weave from slipping on one side, I think there might be a way to do it based on the steps in the weave and the tension on the cord, but I can't really be bothered to look into it right now.

Double T-Virus Belt

I mentioned in my post about the T-Virus belt that I thought it would be possible to weave a second row of knots along the outside. Well, that's exactly what I did:

I added an extra prong to the buckle.

The triange tie-off came out quite well.

The inside has a more "ordered" look.

Basically I wove the regular T-Virus sinnet from fusion knots, and then ran a second row of knots along each side. Rather than pull the entire cord through each of the outer knots, I tried to save time by pulling out the white cord out from the center, leaving me with two knotted "arms" of the light blue cord. This allowed me to pull the "arms" through the loops in the knots in the dark blue cord (OK, if you have no idea what I'm talking about then it might help to watch the instructional video so you understand how the knots are made). I then pushed the white cord back through the knots in the light blue cord using Perma Lok lacing needle.

This may have saved time, but it was fiddly and I had to be careful not to let the knots in the light blue cord unravel while I was working. I think just doing it the long way might be easier in the future.

I was able to modify the "triangle tie-off" to work with six strands, and the luckily the end turned out quite neat. I took the prong from one belt buckle and added it to another to create a mid-sized two-pronged buckle, which seemed more suitable to me, though in truth a regular buckle should work just find as the central strands take most of the strain anyway.

I really like how it came out; the colours work well (I used a brighter blue than the last time) and it's a great pattern, I just wish I'd had a nicer buckle to use. It does take significantly more than twice as long to make as the regular T-Virus though, so I don't know if I'll be making any more any time soon.

KBK Bar Belt

I've been weaving some belts for a handicrafts sale that's coming up - I'm really just using it as an excuse to try some patterns on Fusion Knots that I've had my eye on. This one is the KBK Bar.

I had a little trouble finishing it neatly; I think this type of paracord doesn't melt as nicely either, which didn't help:

I always keep weaves tight, as it's the easiest way I've found to keep them consistant - and for a belt it keeps the belt from being too stretchy. I think that in this case it doesn't look as good though, and to be honest I'm not really happy with the colours either. However, this is the thinnest paracord belt I've woven yet, it's quicker to make than the Derweesh pattern and in solid black I think it would made a decent belt for a man, if perhaps a little narrow.

Slatt's belt

I finally finished my Slatt's belt (thanks again to JD of Fusion Knots for the easy to follow instructions). There's about 120 feet of paracord in here. I used a trick I've been working on to line up the belt with the buckle properly, I've since improved the method and will post the details later. I also replaced the metal tube of the buckle with a firestarter that I cut to size.

It might not be obvious, but I couldn't quite close the metal buckle over the firestarter properly, and now the whole buckle is slightly trapezoidal rather than square. The belt is quite thick and heavy, and pushing the belt prong through the weave is a little awkward.

But other than all that it's pretty decent. Still, I plan to replace it with a Derweesh pattern belt, which should be thinner and easier to use, but I'm having trouble adapting the MarkII pattern to work with 6 spine strands, and just can't seem to find the time to work on it properly.

A Trio of Cheesecakes

We had a charity bake sale at work the other day. I threw together some cheesecakes for the event. I decided to go for a little variety and tried a simple banana cheesecake to go with my usual chocolate and mixed berry. It wasn't much extra work since most of the process is the same; I just mixed a big batch of cheesecake base and filling, then added berries to one and pureed banana to the other two. I put down a layer of chocolate sauce for the berry cheesecake and one of the banana cheesecakes, and drizzled it on top for decoration.

The chocolate sauce was running out by the time I came to decorate them, so I couldn't get it to pour smoothly. Still, they looked OK in the end, and everyone seemed to like them, so that was good.


And hey, I won a cactus, that was cool.

T-Virus Belt

If you're interested in weaving paracord, you should check out fusion knots. Run by a Mr. J. D. Lenzen, the gallery features a huge list of amazing knots and weaves, all with links to very clear and easy to follow instructional videos.

A surprising number of these look like they would work well as belts. I tried the T-Virus Sinnet, and it came out quite well:

So I used the pattern for a belt:

It's much lighter and more flexible than the previous belts I've made, and it's quite quick to weave (though you do have to pay attention to the distance between the knots if you want good consistency). The belt is a little too narrow for a man though (plus it's too fancy for me), but I think it makes a good woman's belt. I think this one is just under 3 feet long, and took about 35 feet of dark blue paracord, and perhaps a little over 6 feet of light blue paracord. I'm wondering if it could be made wider using a more complex pattern in the centre than a spiral, or perhaps weaving a second row of knots along the outside (it should be possible but will be more time-consuming as the entire working cord would need to be pulled through the knot each time, rather than just a loop).

Two birds with one stone

A while back I picked up a Gerber Omnivore. This is a flashlight that has the interesting ability to run off either a single AAA, a single AA, or a single CR123 battery. It's a little expensive compared to the "supermarket brand", but nowhere near the price of some of the upper-end flashlights. And while the smaller model I bought doesn't have the lumens to compete with the heavy-duty models, for most of us it's easily bright enough for casual use (especially if you're using a CR123 cell), plus there's a slightly larger version that's supposed to be a lot brighter.

The convenience of being able to run it off any batteries you have lying around (AAs and AAAs are probably the only two "non-specialist" batteries most of us actually use these days) makes it a great flashlight for use around the house or garden, or leaving somewhere accessible in case of a power failure.

The Omnivore turned out to be a little larger than I expected, but this is dictated by the nature of the multi-battery mechanism. After using it for a while I decided it was just about the perfect size for using the "reverse" grip (that is, holding it with your thumb over the tailcap switch), which is the way this kind of flashlight is meant to be used. If it were any thinner it would be awkward to use the switch, and if it was any shorter there wouldn't be much room for your (or at least my) pinky finger.


So overall I really like the Omnivore. I do, however, have a couple of issues with it. First of all, it doesn't come with a lanyard, and I can't quite seem to pass a strand of paracord through the lanyard hole. Second, the surface is untextured and just doesn't feel very secure in my hand - I wish it had some stippling or something to give you a better grip.

However, I found a way to solve both problems with some paracord. Is there anything it can't do?

Now it feels a lot better in my hand and I can either wrap the lanyard around my wrist or just let it hang between my thumb and finger - that way if the flashlight slips out of my hand I can easily catch the lanyard by simply pinching my thumb in.

The wrap is almost the same as a koppo lanyard, but with both strands passing under the wrap instead of just one. I might undo it and try a regular koppo instead, depending on how much I like it in practice. Or I might get some "skateboard" tape and a regular lanyard instead, we'll see.