Well, the rain let up for a bit today so you decided to climb up the oak in your front yard. In fact, the sun poking through the clouds seemed so beautiful that you decided to bring your banjo up into the tree. You excitedly set a line about 35 ft up, suited up and got ready to climb. For reasons you can't remember now, you attached the banjo to a length of rope with a bowline on each end. Recall that you had recently been using this rope to practice a fancy new (to you) bowline termination someone had posted on a popular tree climbing forum. The folks on these message boards are very friendly, and you sure appreciated them helping you out. A friend recently gave you her old digital camera so you've been snapping photos of anything you fancy. Here's a photo you proudly took of your banjo, prior to climbing:

<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SXud110cUcI/AAAAAAAAAVI/IDj-yKs7Q_g/s400/IMG_3603.JPG" />

Well, as usual, climbing wasn't what you expected. It seemed that you exhausted your tree climbing good fortune by setting your climbing line with only one throw. When hauling up the banjo, the case got stuck. So you paid out slack, tried to get it swinging and pulled again. It got stuck again. You started to get frustrated, and pulled over and over, but no luck. Reluctantly, you descended so check the damage you had rashly caused to your instrument's case - and hopefully not the instrument yourself. To your surprise, you no longer had two bowlines tied to the handle. One had turned into a noose knot, but unlike one you had seen before. Using your camera, you snapped another picture:

<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SXud2GdzorI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/Awo5anzbBOM/s400/IMG_3607.JPG" />

Befuddled to why this happened, you described the events of the day in a post to one of those friendly tree climbing message boards. Perhaps they could help you...

Its hard for me to tell but I will still take the first shot at it. It looks like you were trying to tie the Double Bowline with a Yosemite tie-off. I don't use this knot and don't have any rope at home to tie it, but maybe you tied it incorrectly. You say you are new to the bowline so maybe you got confused. I know a regular bowline can capsize into a slip knot, but a double bowline shouldn't.... I think. I do like the double bowline for many situations, but I never liked the Yosemite tie-off (sometimes called Jacks variation) because it looks too messy for me. Sorry if this is wrong or just not much help, but I got the ball rolling. Good luck.

Knots can't be trusted with banjos. You need a spliced eye cow hitch!

Edit-

Alright, this seems to be degenerate form (correct terminology???). I seem to have trouble remembering the yosemite. There seem to be two correct versions and about six or eight incorrect versions.

I realize that I've made scenario more difficult by making the pictures too small so here's one larger one:

<img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SXud1hRquoI/AAAAAAAAAVA/GTZv9fNgCZg/s800/IMG_3601.JPG" />

and a link to the album if you'd like to see the others in a larger size.

Nice try emr. It is a single bowline, however. Thanks to JimK for inspiring me to make a knot quiz.

Ok, so maybe this is a knot identification quiz. I can't get a yosemite to look like the big photo.

Ok, so this is a knot knowledge quiz. I was just trying to make if fun for folks. Not too many bites. I'd say this is important to know if you use a bowline with a Yosemite finish... take a stab at it!

Hmmm. Now I think I was mistaken. This does look like a correctly tied Yosemite. If you loosen a Yosemite you can get it to capsize into a slip knot. Oddly enough I haven't yet been able to get a regular Bowline to do that -- although you can get a regular bowline to fail entirely.

EDIT- maybe instead of "fail entirely" I should have said "capsize into a failed slip-open form."

Closer, both knots are Yosemite bowlines but something's up with one of them. I'll see if I can take a few clearer photos and I'll demonstrate what's happening.

Here are pictures of the fronts:

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SZT0g-rpYvI/AAAAAAAAAXs/UwxBzUa49xw/s400/Right%20front.JPG" /> <img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SZT0hLk21sI/AAAAAAAAAX0/p3tLOQM2-xQ/s400/Wrong%20front.JPG" />

Despite hardly anyone wanting to play, I can't bring myself to give it away just yet. I'm hoping the low response was only because of my lousy photos.

Be aware that I had to look up "Yosemite Finish", and I suffer from spatial dyslexia (if there's such a disease).

Even so, I'll take a guess.

Whatever you were tying, I believe you may have started with a left-handed bowline.

Well that bottom knot looks crazy. How about these?

http://home.att.net/~galt_57/yosemite.html

If a double bowline does capsize, it turns into a poacher's knot (noose).

Both of these Yosemite bowlines are tied correctly but improperly dressed. The Yosemite finish has slipped above the minor loop (the "hole for the rabbit") in the knot that capsizes. This is most likely with a stiff rope (e.g. SRT access line). When one side of the major loop and the standing part are pulled in the improperly dressed form, the knot capsizes and becomes a noose. This is less likely with a knot which is set well (again, more difficult to do with a stiff rope).

I came across a good write up on securing a bowline on the NSS's Nylon Highway (vertical caver publication) but it has since escaped me. I'll have to find it again. It was written by Heinz Prohaska (of Blake's hitch fame).

I thought this could be fun for folks, since I know a few people use a Yosemite finish for their bowlines.

Really? Could you perhaps loosen up that lower knot so that we could see it better?

Man, you had me convinced for a bit. I thought I had incorrectly tied the incorrectly dressed knot - I'm pretty good with spacial reasoning but I needed to get out a rope and prove it to myself again. Just goes to show how tricky this can be.

I can take some new photos in a bit, but here are some larger versions of the same photos. This should help you see the knot structure a bit better. Try getting out a rope and playing with it.

Correctly dressed:
<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SZT0g-rpYvI/AAAAAAAAAXs/UwxBzUa49xw/s800/Right%20front.JPG" />

Incorrectly dressed:
<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_PhkoNzJmxww/SZT0hLk21sI/AAAAAAAAAX0/p3tLOQM2-xQ/s800/Wrong%20front.JPG" />

In order to fix the incorrect version, loosen the knot and push the upper coil (part of the "finish") down through the lower coil. Pulling it over the lower coil will essentially untie the bowline (maybe this "untied" beast has a different name - it is definitely a knot but I don't know a name for it).

The most common situation for incorrectly dressing the knot seems to be when the Yosemite finish is pulled tight before the minor loop (the "rabbit's hole") is set. It seems to be more of an issue with stiff rope.