The Half Hitch and the Double Half Hitch
Okay. Square knot's not the only knot you need, it's just the one everybody learns first because it looks the most like macrame. Today we're doing the other two, half hitch and double half hitch, and honestly you'll probably use these more than you think.
A half hitch is just one wrap. A double half hitch is two wraps of the same motion, stacked. That's it. That's the whole secret. If you can tie a square knot you already have the hand strength and the finger memory for this, it's just a different path.
The half hitch, one at a time
Take your working cord, the one doing the wrapping, and lay it over a second cord, the one it's wrapping around. That second cord can be a holding cord you're using on purpose, or it can be a neighbor cord in your row.
Bring the working cord up and over the holding cord, then down through the loop you just made. Pull snug. That's one half hitch. Notice it leans a little, like a diagonal stitch. On its own, a single half hitch looks kind of loose and lazy. That's normal. It's not meant to stand alone most of the time.
The double half hitch, which is the one you'll actually use
Do that same motion again, right on top of the first one. Same direction, same wrap, snugged down right next to its twin. Now you've got a double half hitch, and this one holds. This is the knot behind diagonal lines, chevron patterns, anything where you want the cord to travel across the row instead of straight down it.
Here's how I teach it in class. Pick a holding cord, usually the leftmost or rightmost cord in a section, and hold it at an angle, taut, with your non-dominant hand. Then take each working cord one at a time and tie a double half hitch onto that holding cord, working across. When you get to the end, that holding cord has picked up a little diagonal line of knots and it looks like you did something fancy. You didn't. You just repeated one motion eight or ten times.
So here's where I always mess up, or used to. You have to keep tension on that holding cord the whole time you're working across it. The second you relax your grip, the line goes soft and wavy instead of clean and straight. I hold it against the dowel edge sometimes, or brace it against my knee, whatever gets it tight and keeps it there.
A caution worth saying out loud
Your fingers will feel it before your brain catches on that something's wrong. If a wrap feels off, twisted, or the cord's binding weird against itself, stop and look. Don't just cinch it down and hope. A double half hitch pulled crooked doesn't fix itself, it just sits there crooked forever, and you'll see it every time you look at the wall.
The Jacob story
I had a kid in one of my classes, teenager, came because his mom signed him up and he made sure everybody knew it wasn't his idea. Called it a grandma craft, right there in front of the group. I didn't argue with him. I just handed him a cord and told him to tie ten square knots, no talking, just tie them.
He did it. Grumbled the whole time but he did it. Then we got to the half hitch that same day and I had him do a little diagonal line, maybe six inches, just to see. He got quiet. Real quiet. Finished a small piece by the end of class and didn't say another word about grandmas. He'll never tell me he liked it. I know he liked it.
An opinion, since we're here
You don't need a pattern for this. Most of the printed patterns for double half hitch designs are more complicated than the shape they're making. Once you've got the motion down, you can freestyle a diagonal line anywhere in your piece and it'll look intentional, because it is intentional, you're the one doing it. Learn the knot, then wander a little. Some of my favorite hangings came from just deciding halfway through a row to angle a line across instead of following anybody's diagram.
Practice before you commit
Do this on scrap cord first, not your project. Tie a few single half hitches so your hands know what loose feels like, then a few doubles so your hands know what snug feels like. The difference should be obvious after about ten of them. If it's not obvious yet, that's fine, do ten more.
Before next time: bring your dowel piece with the square knots you've already got going, we're going to add a diagonal double half hitch line into that same piece next class, so no new cord needed, just what's already on your work.