If you are in the middle of a Venn diagram of Dog Owner, Fashion Forward, and DIY Bungee Jumping Enthusiast, you are really going to like this one. Also, I would like to meet you, you seem interesting and not long for this world...
A belt made of just rope is cool and punk rock and all, but most rope has no stretch to it so these belts are not very comfortable. If you saw the post about the
inner tube handles you might recall that there are unlimited uses for old bike inner tube. You could just make a belt out of that... but it would be really stretchy and not have the strength of rope or leather.
This belt uses a technique that I swear is called a "waiting link" though multiple search engines disagree with me. The waiting link is a way to add an elastic element to a rope without sacrificing the ultimate strength of the rope. The elastic piece, in this case rubber tape, is added in parallel to the rope, but on a shorter linkage than the rope itself. When the elastic is stretched to whatever limit you set, the "waiting" section of rope goes taut and takes up all load from there on out.
The belt in the picture uses a loop of rubber tape tied through two loops on the rope. This is probably the easiest way to attach one of these, but a
water knot is better and more elegant, and stitching it on is probably best of all.
This is a good dog leash or leader for any animal because it has some give before going fully taut so the dog's head and your arm don't get yanked around as violently. I couldn't decide between critter care and textile techniques for this post, but I think I'd use the animal leader function more. The waiting link is also good for a bunch of other things, one of which I hope to get to in the next couple days.
Edit: aaaand I forgot the picture, hope it is in there now.
This is part of the MoPID series of permaculture innovations that I am working on during my time at
Wheaton Labs. Check out the
thread if you'd like to follow along.
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