Making Knotted-Cord Rosaries

Page 56 in "Marian Devotions in the Domestic Church"

Catherine Fournier and Peter Fournier

Knotted rosaries are simple, inexpensive, and easy even for a child to make. They can be made anywhere (because there are no small pieces to drop), so, besides making them at home as a craft activity, this is a suitable project for a car trip or while at a hotel or cottage. They are also very tough and will last a long time. 

Knotted-cord rosaries use a single special knot as beads and closings. When finished, the knot looks like a little seed or nut, made with just three or four tight wrappings of cord around the main cord. 

Once you have done one knot, the process will all make sense, and you'll be surprised how easily you can make and place the knots. 

Children from age eight should be able to make a knotted-cord rosary. Younger children will need some help at first and might have difficulty keeping their knots perfectly spaced. If your younger child is a perfectionist, he may find this craft a bit frustrating at first. 

• Nylon cord or twine. (Nylon cord will not stretch or fray as much as cotton cord. It comes in different thicknesses, sized by number as multiples of 12.)
  #36 twine - 6 yards
  #48 twine - 7 yards
  #60 twine - 9 yards
  #72 twine - 10 yards
  #96 twine - 12 yards
• Your finger (or a blunt pencil) 
• Scissors 
• Cigarette lighter or matches. (An adult should use these to melt the end of the cord to keep it from unraveling. Be careful: the melted end will be very hot for a few seconds.) 

1. 1. Drape the cord about 10 inches from one end over your left "pointer" finger or over a pencil held in your left hand, and hold it in place with your thumb. The free end will be held against your left palm with your other fingers.
2. 2. With the remaining cord held in your right hand, loosely wrap it clockwise (away from you) around the cord and your finger. Make three wraps around your finger or the pencil, with each wrap closer to your hand.
3. 3. Then push the cord under all the wraps and pull the entire length through. Slide the loose knot off your finger or pencil and tighten it. The nylon cord slides very easily, and the knot is quite easy to tighten (this is especially helpful when placing the rest of your knots). This is your first Hail Mary knot.
4. 4. Make another knot in the same way, with your first knot held against your left pointer finger (or the pencil) with your thumb. When you slide the second knot off, move the loose knot along the cord until it is close to, but not touching, the first knot. Then, as you tighten your second knot by drawing the cord through, maneuver it a short distance away from the first knot.
   
   To maneuver the knot, hold the cord and existing knots with your left hand, and simultaneously roll and nudge the new knot into position with your right thumb and pointer finger while pulling on the free end of the twine with your remaining righthand fingers.

1. 5. An Our Father knot is made the same way as a Hail Mary knot, but the cord is wrapped around six times, to make a larger knot. In addition, when you slide the loose Our Father knot off your finger, remember while you're tightening it to leave a larger space between it and the last Hail Mary knot.

Once you have practiced making some Hail Mary knots and some Our Father knots, begin with a full length of twine, leaving about 10 inches of cord at the start before you form your first Hail Mary knot. Then proceed to tie your first decade of knots, then a spaced Our Father knot, then the second decade, and so on, till you have five decades. 

At this point, you should have a section of unused twine at both ends. 

Join the two ends of your work in this fashion, to form the "tail". 

1. 1. Holding both the first Hail Mary and the last Hail Mary against your left "pointer" finger with your thumb, wrap the two end cords around your finger clockwise three times. One cord is ten inches, the other is longer.
2. 2. As with the other knots, push the ends of the pair of cords through the loose windings on your finger; and pull the entire length through. (You might need to push each piece of cord through separately. Start with the shorter cord, and do not take the knot off your finger until you have both cords through.) The result will be a knot the same size as the other Our Father knots.
3. 3. Leaving the shorter length of cord free, use the longer cord to do the following:
   —make one Our Father knot; leave a space
   —make three Hail Mary knots; leave a space
   —and make a final Our Father knot.
4. 4. Burn off (do not cut, it will fray too much) the shorter cord remaining at the joining knot. Because the melted cord remains very hot for a few seconds, this should be done by an adult. Save this shorter length to use for the cross-bar of the cross.

Examine the diagram and follow these steps: 

1. 1. Leave a space (the same space be tween Our Father knots and Hail Mary knots) from the last completed Our Father knot, and make the first knot that will form the cross. Then make four or five more such knots spaced very closely together. *
2. 2. To make the cross-bar, take the piece of cord you just burned off, and place it flat on your lap or a table. On top of it position the vertical row of knots, so that the cord underneath is between the second and third knots. Tie the small cord tightly between those two knots, and then tie two Our Father knots, closely spaced, in the two "arms" of the cross. Finally, check that all knots are very tight, and burn off the ends of the cross-bar.

* If you prefer a smaller cross, reduce the number of knots: e.g., use 3 or 4 knots for the upright, and 2 knots for the cross-bar.