Chain Sinnet Variations

'My MacBook Pro Has a Monkey Braid! :)' by tomas carillo

The chain sinnet (monkey braid, etc.) is an incredibly easy knot that's useful to shorten ropes or cables. These days, as far as I can tell, it's mainly used by survivalists (to make paracord accessories) and computer dorks (for cable management). 

Sennit or sinnet, by the way, is a term for a type of rope made by plaiting or braiding smaller cords together in some way. As a tool and an art form, it was most extensively developed by Pacific island cultures.

If you've never tried making it, Lifehacker did a post last year which explains the normal technique: Use a Chain Sinnet to Tidy Cables. 

If you make a proper chain sinnet with a cable, it should turn out something like the picture in the upper right. It looks quite attractive, but it has some downsides. The main problem I have is that it essentially takes a thin cable and makes it act like a large ribbon cable. In some ways, this is useful: it's still flexible, it's not likely to tangle, and you can fold it up to compress it. But it doesn't bunch up very well, and it's not very springy. I'll get back to that in a minute.


Chain sinnet can look very different with different sizes and types of rope. With cables like the MacBook power cable above, it often ends up looking like a series of loops (which it is). But with thicker, more flexible rope, it can look like the version at left, from Wikimedia Commons. Crocheters and embroiderers will certainly recognize the ubiquitous chain stitch in the form of the chain sinnet. And if any knitters out there think this picture seems strangely familiar, it does to me, too: I think stockinette stitch is rather like a chain sinnet extrapolated to another dimension. Chain sinnet is a single column of recursive loops; stockinette stitch is made of rows and columns of recursive, interlocking loops. 

The first few times I made the chain sinnet for cable management, I didn't always do it correctly. Sometimes I would twist the loop in one hand before inserting the next loop into it, especially if I wasn't paying attention. And instead of laying flat, the sinnet braid would twist. Interesting! After a bit of experimentation, I found a couple handy variations on the standard chain sinnet.

For these explanations, I'll assume you're making a chain sinnet just like Grog does, but turned 90° to the right, with the tail of the work at the bottom and the working end at the top; that you pass each new loop up into the previous loop from below; and that for each loop, the tail end (the part going back to the previous loop) is on your right, compared to the working end (going to the next loop), which is on your left.


Now, if you'll notice, there are two basic specification requirements for the standard chain sinnet (come up from underneath, and keep the working end of each loop on the left), so we'll discuss two variations.

The first variation on this is simply that you alternate the positions of the working end and the tail end of the string/rope/cable. For the first loop, keep the working end on the left and the tail on the right. Then reverse it for the next loop. You can see the results in the photo to the left. The working end is at the top (ready for the next loop), and the tail is at the bottom. The chain sinnet still turns out quite ribbon-like, but it twists side-to-side more easily.

The second variation is to alternate the direction you insert each loop into the previous loop. First you come up from below, then insert the next loop in from above. In the example on the right, using audio cable from some headphones, I kept the ends of each loop in the same orientation (working end left, tail end right, for instance), and the chain sinnet naturally falls into a lovely helix, which acts a bit like old phone cord coils: it's springy, and reverts to a compressed, bunched-up shape when left alone. This variation is much more handy for shortening cables than the standard chain sinnet, since it compresses better.

Here's a homework problem for those among you with free time: my alternating-insert variation helix turns counter-clockwise as it progresses. How could you make it turn the other way? Could you combine these two variations to form a chain sinnet which collapses like an accordion or Jacob's ladder? What happens if you switch after every second or third loop, instead of every loop? Are there any other variations that I've missed?


Incidentally, if you're interested in making a chain sinnet survival paracord bracelet (or collar), the technique is slightly different than the standard chain sinnet. You can see the details in this instructable, and this blog post has some good pictures and links. Basically, because your lanyard has a loop at the tail end, you will end up with two working ends, which will be braided together as you go. When the current loop faces left, you make the next loop with the left working end and insert it. Vice versa for alternating loops. If you want to make your bracelet fancy, you can begin and/or end with the lanyard knot, which is useful for that sort of thing.