# Making rope?



## Ireth (Apr 9, 2012)

I've been toying with an idea for my Hunchback of Notre Dame adaptation. Without going into too much spoiler-filled plot detail (though I will if people need it), it involves the female lead character (the bellringer) using yarn to make a long rope, which she uses to climb down the side of the church from the belltower. She has lots of yarn because she spends much of her spare time in the belltower weaving tapestries, and she has a LOT of spare time to fill. The rope is a secret, which she hides from the villain (her captor) so that one day she can escape from him.

Logic says that she should use whole skeins of yarn for this, but I was thinking she might be forced to mostly use leftover scraps so as not to end up using unusually large amounts of wool per day, which would make the villain suspicious and might prompt him to stop letting her weave altogether if he thought she was wasting it. She'd gather the scraps over a period of up to six years (haven't quite decided how long she's been shut in the tower yet), and knot them together to make longer strands, which she'd then braid or twist into a very long rope. She'd likely use some whole skeins to reinforce the scraps, but too many would look suspicious.

So, to the point: How much yarn would it take to make a suitable rope, and would that rope hold up to stress if it were made mostly out of knotted scraps rather than long strands?


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## Caged Maiden (Apr 9, 2012)

Mythbusters did a segment on prison escape where they used different materials to make a rope.  I tried to get a link, but couldn't get a good one.  If you have netflix you can watch it for free there.  Season 7 ep 9 I think.


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## Ireth (Apr 9, 2012)

Oooh, I've seen that episode!  They didn't use yarn though -- just bedsheets, hair and toilet paper. So I'm not sure how helpful that would be. Hair would be the closest thing to yarn, probably, since that was all in smaller segments too. But there's things like texture which would also affect the ease of making and, more importantly, climbing with the resulting rope.


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## Caged Maiden (Apr 9, 2012)

it's just a place to start.  I think the toilet paper would be more yarn-like actually.  It has lots of stretch and when wove, qhite a lot of tensile strength too.  I'd probably model it after the toilet paper one


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## Ireth (Apr 9, 2012)

That could work... but again there's the length issue. The toilet paper was all in very long strands when it was twisted, and it wasn't knotted together nearly as much as the yarn in my story would be. I imagine the knots would be a huge factor in the strength of the finished rope, whether positive or negative.


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## Caged Maiden (Apr 9, 2012)

hmm... you could try it on a small scale.  Make a small rope about three feet long and hang something heavy from it and then sort of guesstimate what the properties of the finished product would be.  Knots are tricky because they can come undone.  If i were knotting something, i'd do little hangman knots which tighten maybe.  could she not weave a rope?  I have friends who do finger weaving, perhaps that would be an option for her to make a long knotted string of scraps into one long strip and then those could be twisted together.


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## Caged Maiden (Apr 9, 2012)

It just occurred to me that if she had fabric at her disposal she could combine the two materials for strength (because yarn is pretty stretchy).  What if she had old dresses which she ripped into long strips or curtains or sheets.  Those could be twisted with the yarn strips she weaves and that might make a really sturdy rope in a short amount of time.


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## Kit (Apr 9, 2012)

Stephen King's _The Eyes Of the Dragon_ used a very similar plot idea in great detail; the guy in the tower made a rope from threads of napkins. You might want to read it for ideas (as well as to make sure you make yours different enough!)


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## Butterfly (Apr 9, 2012)

As long as he sees the final product, I doubt the villain would know how much yarn actually went to each tapestry. I'd suggest she is able to blag more out him than she'd need, say one or two balls a week. Over a period of time it would build up considerably. 

Where is she hiding it?


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## Ireth (Apr 9, 2012)

anihow said:


> It just occurred to me that if she had fabric at her disposal she could combine the two materials for strength (because yarn is pretty stretchy).  What if she had old dresses which she ripped into long strips or curtains or sheets.  Those could be twisted with the yarn strips she weaves and that might make a really sturdy rope in a short amount of time.



Oooh, good idea!  Dunno if there would be curtains in the belltower, but old dresses or sheets are quite possible.



Kit said:


> Stephen King's _The Eyes Of the Dragon_ used a very similar plot idea in great detail; the guy in the tower made a rope from threads of napkins. You might want to read it for ideas (as well as to make sure you make yours different enough!)



I'll check it out if I see it.  I've never read Stephen King before, though I've seen movie adaptations of a couple of his books. I'm not usually a big horror fan though. Is that a strict horror or a fantasy?



Butterfly said:


> As long as he sees the final product, I doubt the villain would know how much yarn actually went to each tapestry. I'd suggest she is able to blag more out him than she'd need, say one or two balls a week. Over a period of time it would build up considerably.
> 
> Where is she hiding it?



She has her own room up in the belltower that the villain never enters. It's where she transforms into a wolf every full moon. It's possible she could hide it in there; she'd just have to make sure to hang it up out of reach of her wolf-self so she wouldn't accidentally shred it while in wolf form.


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## Kit (Apr 9, 2012)

Ireth said:


> I'll check it out if I see it.  I've never read Stephen King before, though I've seen movie adaptations of a couple of his books. I'm not usually a big horror fan though. Is that a strict horror or a fantasy?
> .



It's fantasy. Stephen King being one of the most widely-read authors there is, it might be worth checking out if only to make sure your story does not parallel it too closely. It's a safe bet that a large portion of your potential audience would be familiar with King.


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## Ireth (Apr 9, 2012)

Alrighty. I'll take a look for it next time I'm in a library or bookstore.


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## ascanius (Apr 11, 2012)

Being a rock climber I am going to say an emphatic NOOO, It's a horrible idea, and not all the money in the world would get me to trust my life to a rope made of yarn.  But that's just the climber dangling from a cliff face, and not the hopefull writer in me.
That being said it is plausible, LOVE MYTHBUSTERS, but I see two problems.  1.  How high is the tower.  When climbing their are two types of rope, static and dynamic.  A static rope does not stretch so, meaning that if someone falls their fall is arested harshly.  If the fall is short, say six feet the rope will hold, but if the fall is long the rope will snap, even steel cable will do this.  A dynamic rope will stretch absorbing the weight of the climber gradually, this also prevents the rope from snapping allowing for very high falls, and by the way it is not fun.  Yarn is static, it will not stretch but snap if put under to much stress ie a high fall.  Test it if you like, get a weight, five pounds maybe, and drop if from somewhere high, it will snap and not stretch.  Keep this in mind, if she accidentally falls from the top of the tower she will die, unless the rope is very thick.
2.  for static ropes longer the rope gets the more strain it is under with the same weight.  So if you have a weight suspended five feet on a rope the stress is relatively low.  However if you have the same weight suspended one hundred and fifty feet that rope is under a lot of stress meaning it is much more likely to break.  
As someone else mentioned knots are the biggest weak point.  another thing to note is moisture, water can actually weaken a rope, special ropes are used for wet enviroments where the rope will get wet.  The water causes the rope to become even heavier increasing it's load, rope weight plus climber, and making it more stiff.

All is not lost.  First if yarn is going to be used twine it.  meaning get one strand and twist it all along it's length, then another doing the same.  Then twist those strands around each other in the opposite direction of the individual twists.  Twining can make a weak rope very strong allowing a greater load than an untwined rope,and as an added bonus it will stretch a little bit. This will also allow a for a smaller rope, and lesser quantity of yarn.  Another option would be to braid it, or use seven smaller twisted strands, or what ever number you choose, though 100 strands might be excessive.  
Another option is to do the decent in pitches, multiple steps.  She climes from a window to a lower ledge, then climbs from that to the next.  This will reduce the stress on the rope of doing 150 feet in one go.  
She could also make the rope thicker but you are going to have to decide on that.  For reference climbing ropes are 7.4 mm to 11.0mm in diameter, but remember the thicker the rope the more weight it has to carry.
Another option is to include strips of cloth into the rope at it's core.  again remember that cloth is going to be very static and not stretch at all thought.  

Also I wouldn't use a hangmans knot, I would use the figure eight bend, double fisherman's, or alpine butterfly.  Another important aspect is the anchor point and setting it up, the tie off point to a post or whatever.  for instance having the rope run straight to the climber from the anchor will cause the rope to absorb all the shock from a fall at it's weakest point the anchor, where it is tied off at.  By having a two ropes meet at a forty five degree angle to the weight bearing rope will lessen the stress to the anchor on a fall.  Also abrasion of the rope as it rubs against another object can significantly weaken the rope to the point of failure.  

Some of this information may not be useful, like if she doesn't fall then the static or dynamic rope bit isn't important, but I figure more information is better.  I am writing this from my point of view if I had to use the rope.  My biggest concern, and most important, is I want the rope to hold if and when I fall.  I think the biggest problem is going to be how far from the room she is in to the bottom.  How much is useful to you is up to you.

By the way, I remember in your other post that you needed something for her to do.  This might be an idea, learning how to make a rope that will hold her weight, or which knots to use.  just an idea.


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## Ireth (Apr 11, 2012)

Thanks for the information, ascanius. This will come in very useful.  I do imagine the climb will be in stages, not one huge drop. There are probably some sort of outcroppings on the outside of the belltower that she could tie the rope to every so often on the way down. I was planning on having her use cloth in the rope as well, and possibly pieces of old ropes that had been used for ringing the cathedral bells.

Moisture could be trouble, however. The story takes place in England, and from what I know England is very rainy. Even if it's not raining when she tries to use the rope, it could be problematic in general.


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## ascanius (Apr 11, 2012)

Moisture is only a problem if the rope gets completely sodden, a few drops here or there wont effect the rope much.  Climbers use wetropes when they know the rope will get very wet, like when people go canyoning.  Most likely if it is not raining, or right after it rained it won't have that great of an effect on the rope.  One thing I forgot to mention though.  climbing down is much harder than climbing up, I think most climbers would agree, and I find it to be a lot more scary.  Glad I could help, good luck.


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## Ireth (Jul 11, 2012)

*revives thread* Wooo, necromancy.

I have another question, regarding the scraps of yarn and/or fabric used to make the rope. Would knotting or splicing be the preferred way to get all the bits and pieces together? Which one would be stronger?


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## psychotick (Jul 11, 2012)

Hi,

What I know of rope making is little, but as I understand it it's made through a process of twining and platting. No knots at all, the fibres hang tightly together out of friction. This can make it very strong compared to its original fibres just laid out straight, but it comes with the problem that it shortens them. Take a piece of wool, twist it in your hands and you'll see what I'm talking about. She really needs a lot of fibre to work with, and in order for them to be able to grip they have to be of a reasonable length. I would have thought at least a foot each. My thought would be (and purely a guess) that if she unpicked a dress carefully, she might get maybe ten to twenty feet of useful rope out of it. Also, without some sort of mechanical assistance, it'd be a slow process.

However, if she's a werewolf and she changes in her tower every month, maybe when she'd changed, she shreds things like her bedding. That would give her plenty of material to work with once a month and an explanation for constantly needing more.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Ireth (Jul 11, 2012)

Hi Greg, thanks for the input.  Diana is a weaver, so her rope will be mostly made up of yarn as well as strips from her old clothes or bedding. Since she'll mostly be using the trimmed yarn ends from each finished tapestry as well as a few whole skeins for strength purposes, I do think there will be a lot of knotting or splicing necessary to make longer strands. The long strands will of course be then braided or twisted into a thicker rope. She's been working at this for about six years all on her own, so even without mechanical aid, she's bound to have made quite a bit of progress by now, particularly if she works at it every day.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 12, 2012)

If I remember right - big time 'if' - Olde time sailors, who did a *lot* of rope splicing and mending, used to go with twisting the strands together and using what they called 'oakum', a sort of tar-glue to keep them together.


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## Ireth (Jul 12, 2012)

That does ring a few bells, Thinker. Pun not intended.  I'm not sure where Diana would get her hands on any oakum, since I don't think Leeds is anywhere close to the sea, but she might be able to come up with a substitute.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 12, 2012)

> I'm not sure where Diana would get her hands on any oakum, since I don't think Leeds is anywhere close to the sea, but she might be able to come up with a substitute.



Anything sticky would probably work - say tar from the supplies used to repair the roof or some such?


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## Ireth (Jul 12, 2012)

That's quite possible. Thanks, Thinker.


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## Ireth (Jul 14, 2012)

Coming back to this with more info and more questions. XD I've done more research on the cathedral I'm using, and found that the belltower is ~140 feet high (I assume from the ground to the top of the spires). That gives me a good grounding for how long of a rope she'd need to make. I'll just say the finished rope is 140 feet to keep things easier rather than guesstimating for exactly where she'd be climbing down from. If some ends up of the ground, then there's nothing wrong with that.

My questions are, how long would it take to make a 140-foot rope over a period of ~6 years? Would she need to gather every single scrap of yarn/cloth/whatever first and then do all the knotting, splicing, tarring and braiding for the core, followed by all of the final twisting for the rest? Or could she do all of the things in stages, adding to the length as she went?


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## Kit (Jul 14, 2012)

Length- she could drop a little ways at the bottom, but she will also need 2 feet or so to tie a knot to something at the top.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 15, 2012)

One thought:

She need not make the entire rope in one go - simply make it in twenty or thirty foot sections, and then tying them together.


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## Ireth (Jul 15, 2012)

*nod* Good idea, Thinker. I'm still having some issue with how long it would take, though. Assuming an average of 1 inch's worth of rope per day, and no working on Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday or Easter, her progress after six years would look like this: *((365-55) x 6) / 12 = 155 feet* total. Well over the needed amount. That doesn't account for leap years or sickness, or anything else that would alter her pacing for better or worse. I want her to be still not close to finished the rope after six years (i.e. the start of the story), then finish the rope over the course of at least a few months -- at first probably at the same rate as normal, but finally culminating in a desperate all-nighter to get through the last 20-30 feet, give or take, before the climax.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 15, 2012)

Simple enough - have her make the rope twice.  First time around it gets stolen or confiscated or destroyed somehow.  Have a scene where this absolutely crushes her, and then have something happen which motivates her to do it all over again.  

Additional thought - not all of the rope even need be rope.  She could tie a plank to the end if need be.


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## Ireth (Jul 15, 2012)

Maybe... but redoing six years' worth of work in a much shorter time seems a bit unrealistic even if she's desperate, especially if the villain is onto her scheme. He'd be more vigilant after catching her once, and not likely to let her repeat the offense at all, or even think of doing so.


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## ThinkerX (Jul 15, 2012)

> Maybe... but redoing six years' worth of work in a much shorter time seems a bit unrealistic even if she's desperate, especially if the villain is onto her scheme. He'd be more vigilant after catching her once, and not likely to let her repeat the offense at all, or even think of doing so.



Assuming he thinks that is what happened.

Your MC makes rope.  She hides the rope as she does so.  Big renovation comes up - your villian is playing full time toady to his boss.  Villian stumbles across rope maybe literally, and instead of suspecting her, concludes idiot workmen put it in the wrong place because well, they got rope all over the dang place.

Villian gives rope to workmen complete with a no interuption or explanation allowed lecture about leaving stuff laying around.  Workmen look at each other, put it in their bag and take it with them.  Villian is so busy worrying about his boss showing up and the utter mess the workers are making he doesn't suspect your MC made this particular rope.

Your MC *knows* she had a real close call, and does no more rope making at all for a good couple of years - because this really spooked her.


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## Ireth (Jul 15, 2012)

ThinkerX said:


> Assuming he thinks that is what happened.
> 
> Your MC makes rope.  She hides the rope as she does so.  Big renovation comes up - your villian is playing full time toady to his boss.  Villian stumbles across rope maybe literally, and instead of suspecting her, concludes idiot workmen put it in the wrong place, and gives it back to them, complete with a no interuption or explanation allowed lecture about leaving stuff laying around.  Workmen look at each other, put it in their bag and take it with them.  Your MC *knows* she had a real close call, and does no more rope making at all for a good couple of years - because this really spooked her.



One HUGE problem with that. The rope in question, being made mostly from scraps of yarn trimmed from Diana's tapestries, will be multicolored. The villain has seen all of Diana's many tapestries before, and is the one who provides the yarn for her to make them with, so if he saw that he'd have good reason to be suspicious. Who else would make something like that out of yarn scraps? Nobody else goes up into the belltower (except Vincent, but that's another issue).


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## ThinkerX (Jul 15, 2012)

> One HUGE problem with that. The rope in question, being made mostly from scraps of yarn trimmed from Diana's tapestries, will be multicolored. The villain has seen all of Diana's many tapestries before, and is the one who provides the yarn for her to make them with, so if he saw that he'd have good reason to be suspicious. Who else would make something like that out of yarn scraps? Nobody else goes up into the belltower (except Vincent, but that's another issue).



Nobody goes up there under *normal* circumstances.  Renovation or repair would be a different story.  Maybe swiped by a crooked worker instead of villian?  MC counts herself lucky that worker did not take rope to villian?


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## Ireth (Jul 15, 2012)

Possibly. Such an idea could be tricky to get across in the story though. Since it has to happen a matter of years before the story begins, I don't think I could effectively establish it in a scene without it ending up being a flashback (which I'm not good at) or an infodump through dialogue (which wouldn't be nearly as effective as showing it in an actual scene of its own).


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## ThinkerX (Jul 15, 2012)

Simple enough.  Something happens that prompts her to start making the second rope.  As she does so, she decides she does not want this rope to 'vanish' as did the first one - and have her choose a hiding place with that in mind.  More of a passing thought with maybe a mental curse directed at the workman sho stole the first rope.


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## Ireth (Jul 15, 2012)

1) Would Diana not think to hide the first rope in the best place she can think of - ex. stuffed into her mattress where nobody would think to look when renovating? (For the record: yes, she would.) How then could it be found by a random person?

2) Again there's the time issue. The story will take place over a matter of months, probably no more than six. She'd have to work very hard and fast to squeeze six years' worth of work into so many months, and what with the actual _plot_ that needs to happen as well as her day job weaving tapestries, her time to work will be quite limited.


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## ascanius (Jul 16, 2012)

Ireth said:


> 1) Would Diana not think to hide the first rope in the best place she can think of - ex. stuffed into her mattress where nobody would think to look when renovating? (For the record: yes, she would.) How then could it be found by a random person?



She probably would take the greatest care to ensure that rope is never found.  It is her life line and hope to the outside world, i doubt she would be careless enough to allow for anything to happen to it.  If however you need a reason for her to make another rope have her simply break it.  She gets her finished rope, decides she is to scared to use it without testing it.  She tests is using something twice her weight, snap rope breaks.  Then she learns what she did wrong and how to make her next rope better.



Ireth said:


> 2) Again there's the time issue. The story will take place over a matter of months, probably no more than six. She'd have to work very hard and fast to squeeze six years' worth of work into so many months, and what with the actual _plot_ that needs to happen as well as her day job weaving tapestries, her time to work will be quite limited.



In six years she could probably have six or seven ropes depending on the availability of material.  The thing that will take her the most time is going to be figuring out how to make rope along with a system to do it.  Once those two things are understood the work would probably go really quickly adding feet by the day, even more if she devotes all her time to it.  The limiting factor in this is of course the availability of resources.  If though she has the remains of her broken rope that could easily be used to make another and she would have all the resources she needs.  In that case it would just be learning a new method and system to make the rope stronger, but she would probably get it done a lot quicker than the first time, six months is doable in that case.  

I think the biggest thing that will make this time consuming for her is going from knowing nothing about rope making to making a rope that will support her weight.  There would probably be a lot of trial and error in this process.  That is where she is going to loose a lot of time just figuring out how to do it, that's the hard part.   it would be the same if I decided to make a tapestry only have seen one.  It would take me a very long time to make anything that could be called a rug even, but once I got a system down and the basics progress would proceed rapidly, at that point it would be more about fine tuning the system.


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## Ireth (Jul 16, 2012)

ascanius said:


> She probably would take the greatest care to ensure that rope is never found.  It is her life line and hope to the outside world, i doubt she would be careless enough to allow for anything to happen to it.



Exactly. Which is why I'm not entirely sold yet on the idea of having her make more than one rope.



ascanius said:


> In six years she could probably have six or seven ropes depending on the availability of material.  The thing that will take her the most time is going to be figuring out how to make rope along with a system to do it.  Once those two things are understood the work would probably go really quickly adding feet by the day, even more if she devotes all her time to it.  The limiting factor in this is of course the availability of resources.  If though she has the remains of her broken rope that could easily be used to make another and she would have all the resources she needs.  In that case it would just be learning a new method and system to make the rope stronger, but she would probably get it done a lot quicker than the first time, six months is doable in that case.



That depends on the availability of time she has to work. If she spends her days either weaving tapestries or cleaning the belltower, she might not have a lot of time to make her rope, which would mean it would take her a while to make progress. And since she needs to make 140 feet worth of rope strong enough to hold her weight, she'll need a lot more time to get it long enough.



ascanius said:


> I think the biggest thing that will make this time consuming for her is going from knowing nothing about rope making to making a rope that will support her weight.  There would probably be a lot of trial and error in this process.  That is where she is going to loose a lot of time just figuring out how to do it, that's the hard part.



Yup, pretty much.


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## ascanius (Jul 18, 2012)

Ireth said:


> *nod* Good idea, Thinker. I'm still having some issue with how long it would take, though. Assuming an average of 1 inch's worth of rope per day, and no working on Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday or Easter, her progress after six years would look like this: *((365-55) x 6) / 12 = 155 feet* total. Well over the needed amount. That doesn't account for leap years or sickness, or anything else that would alter her pacing for better or worse. I want her to be still not close to finished the rope after six years (i.e. the start of the story), then finish the rope over the course of at least a few months -- at first probably at the same rate as normal, but finally culminating in a desperate all-nighter to get through the last 20-30 feet, give or take, before the climax.



Going back to the original delema.  You could have her just make the rope thicker so it take longer for her to make.  

or have her spend the first six months testing and figuring out how to make a rope.  Like she makes a length of rope ( five feet, or a foot a test length)  Then she tests the rope and finds it's load limit for that length and thickness.  then scales it up.  or she just tests different ways to twin the rope, or braid it together so that it works and can hold 2x her weight.  

Another thing could be she is forced to slow down due to her jailor noticing that she is consuming more yarn that is needed in the tapestry.  She realizes she needs to ease back to avoid suspicion so it takes her longer.

Or lack of materials.  Is there any reason why she is allowed to do the tapestries?  Does he sell them?  Cuz his business dealing could always interfere with the supply.  Like a disgruntled competitor might decide to set fire to his warehouse or something.  Hell it could be something simple like a workman was careless and set fire to the dock warehouses resulting in having to wait two or three, even six months for the next shipment of wool to come in, get dyed, and distributed.  Don't know how realistic that last one is but just an idea.

Another thing that could happen is she notices weak points in the rope and has to go back and figure out how to redo those specific places and spends a month or two doing that.

Her work load could become doubled forcing her to spend less time making the rope and more time doing other things.  

last but not least a combination of these things.  Though making the rope thicker is probably the simplest.

Quick question.  How many hours each day does she have free to spend making the rope?  Oh and why wouldn't she work on holidays?  If I were escaping I would work everyday to get the rope complete holiday or not.


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## Ireth (Jul 18, 2012)

ascanius said:


> Going back to the original delema.  You could have her just make the rope thicker so it take longer for her to make.
> 
> or have her spend the first six months testing and figuring out how to make a rope.  Like she makes a length of rope ( five feet, or a foot a test length)  Then she tests the rope and finds it's load limit for that length and thickness.  then scales it up.  or she just tests different ways to twin the rope, or braid it together so that it works and can hold 2x her weight.
> 
> Another thing could be she is forced to slow down due to her jailor noticing that she is consuming more yarn that is needed in the tapestry.  She realizes she needs to ease back to avoid suspicion so it takes her longer.



Having her test the rope often is a good idea.  As for her captor noticing the amount of yarn she uses, I'm not sure he'd pay too close attention. He's a deacon, not a weaver, so he doesn't have the same knowledge about weaving that she does.



ascanius said:


> Or lack of materials.  Is there any reason why she is allowed to do the tapestries?  Does he sell them?  Cuz his business dealing could always interfere with the supply.  Like a disgruntled competitor might decide to set fire to his warehouse or something.  Hell it could be something simple like a workman was careless and set fire to the dock warehouses resulting in having to wait two or three, even six months for the next shipment of wool to come in, get dyed, and distributed.  Don't know how realistic that last one is but just an idea.



Yes, her captor sells them and keeps the money for himself. She gets commissions from people in other churches for tapestries depicting Biblical scenes, much like some painters did around that time.



ascanius said:


> Another thing that could happen is she notices weak points in the rope and has to go back and figure out how to redo those specific places and spends a month or two doing that.
> 
> Her work load could become doubled forcing her to spend less time making the rope and more time doing other things.
> 
> last but not least a combination of these things.  Though making the rope thicker is probably the simplest.



That's a lot of good ideas to consider. Thanks. 



ascanius said:


> Quick question.  How many hours each day does she have free to spend making the rope?  Oh and why wouldn't she work on holidays?  If I were escaping I would work everyday to get the rope complete holiday or not.



Since most of her time is spent making tapestries (mostly for others, but she does have a few of her own in the tower), she has not a lot of time per day to make the rope, so that affects how long it would take. She doesn't work Sundays or holidays for religious reasons. (Note that the holidays I mentioned are very important to Christians.)


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