The double half hitch knot is a classic macrame knot. It creates lines, curves, even circles. Whilst it does have a reputation of being tricky to learn, it is actually a very simple knot – and that is where some confusion comes in! We think it’s going to be a lot more complicated than it really is! Let me guide you step-by-step how to tie the double half hitch knot.
It is called the double half hitch, because it is made up of, well, two half hitches! And a half hitch is simply a loop of one cord around another. A single half hitch by itself doesn’t do much, but when you make at least two, it starts to get interesting. Let’s start by looking at the double half hitch (or DHH as it is often abbreviated to) on its own before we see how it can be made into patterns.
Working cords and Holding cords
One of the most important things to understand about double half hitches (DHH) is that it is always made with one static cord, called a holding cord (also known as a filler cord or guide cord) that other cords, called working cords, knot around. The holding cord is always on top of the working cords in macrame. So unlike most knots where you have two cords that wrap and knot around each other, in the double half hitch, it is just the working cord that we move. The holding cord stays still and “holds” its place. And the really fun thing when working the DHH is that the working cords and holding cords can switch, meaning you can create all sorts of interesting patterns!
How to tie a double half hitch knot
Let’s look at tying the double half hitch on its own before we see how it can be worked in a pattern.
1.In the example, the blue cord on the right is our working cord, and the yellow cord on the leftis our holding cord. Remember, the holding cord won’t move, we will knot the working cord around it. If it helps, you can pin or stick the holding cord down.
2.Bring the working cord under the holding cord. We always start a double half hitch with the working cord coming from behind the holding cord.
3. Bring the working cord back over the holding cord to the right. This creates a loop on the left.
4.The bring the working cord back under the holding cord and come up through the loop on the left.
5.Gently tighten the working cord. This is a single half hitch. As you can see, it’s just a loop of one cord around another!
6.To make it a double half hitch, we repeat the process a second time. The cord is already coming from underneath, so we just need to take the cord back over to the right, creating a loop on the left again.
7.Take the working cord back under the holding cord and up through the loop on the left.
8.Tighten the cord to complete the double half hitch!
How to make a row of double half hitch knots
So how does this work when you want to make a row of DHH knots? In this example, I will show you how to create a row of DHH knots going left to right and then another row going right to left. I’ve attached some cords to a wooden dowel using lark’s head knots to begin.
1.The cord on the left is going to become our holding cord, so bring it across on top of the other cords.
2.The next cord along becomes our first working cord. It is already coming from underneath the holding cord, so bring it back over the holding cord to create your loop.
3.Bring the working cord under the holding cord and up through the loop.
4.Gently tighten the working cord – it is usually useful to keep the holding cord tight as you do this. That’s the first half of the hitch.
5.Bring the same working cord across the holding cord again to form another loop.
6.And bring it back under the holding cord, up through the loop.
7.Tighten the knot around the holding cord so the two loops are neat. You can use your finger to push and manipulate the knot into position if needed. That is one double half hitch complete.
8.Move to the next free working cord to the right, and repeat from step 2 in this section.
9.Here you can see two complete double half hitch knots. Continue working you way along, moving to a new working cord with each DHH knot you make.
10. This is one row of DHH knots complete. You can see it should form a neat, raised line. The knots follow the holding cord; so where the holding cord goes, so do the knots! You can use this to create patterns and change the direction of your knotting.
11.To knot back in the opposite direction, bring the same holding back on itself. You can pin or stick it down if that helps.
12.Bring the first working cord along (which will be the one you last knotted on the previous row) up across the holding cord to create a loop.
13.Bring the working cord back under the holding cord, up through the loop.
13.And gently tighten so it lines up with the knot in the row above.
14.Bring the same working cord over the holding cord again to form a loop, and then take it under the holding cord and up through the loop to complete the DHH knot.
15.Work your way back along, moving to the next free working cord after each DHH. If you found going in the opposite direction tricky- you aren’t the only one! It is very common to struggle, or to find it confusing to change the direction of double half hitch knots. I’ll discuss why and offer some suggestions in the next section.
Why are double half hitch knots harder to tie going left?
One of the reasons people struggle with the double half hitch knot is that a row can look perfectly neat going in one direction, but untidy and messy going in the other. There are two reasons why this happens. Firstly, we can find it challenging to change direction after our brains and hands have got used to going in one direction. It feels weird to be going in the opposite direction, which makes us feel like we are doing something wrong when we aren’t. The only way to get around this is practice – sorry! Allow yourself time to play around with the double half hitch going in different directions, and it will soon feel much easier, I promise.
Secondly, the cord can make a huge difference! All macrame cords except braided cords have a twist, which is generally clockwise (also known as a ‘S’ twist), and you can see the threads running from top left to bottom right. When you are making a series of double half hitch knots that also move from left to right, it works with the twist, giving you a smooth finish. But, when you are knotting from right to left, you are working against the twist. This means the twist opens out, resulting in a more untidy looking knot.
How do you combat this? Again, it gets better with practice, and the more confident you are with the knots, the smoother your knotting will look. Keeping the twist in the cord as you knot helps. But using a 3 ply or braided cord (as I used the in main examples) helps a lot. If you use a single twist cord or string, the effect of going against the twist is always more pronounced. This is another reason why I use 3ply not single twist in all my kits! Once you have mastered the knot, you can move on to using the single twist. If you want to know more about the different types of macrame cord available, take a look at this post.
There are many other ways that the double half hitch knot can be tied, which I will cover in future posts, but they will all be so much easier once you have mastered the basics!
I hope you have found this post on how to tie double half hitch knots useful. If you have any comments or questions, pop them below and I’ll get back to you. If you want to learn even more macrame, look at my other macrame tutorials, macrame kits and digital macrame patterns. My Wave Bracelet Kit uses the DHH knot and is perfect for getting to grips with the technique!