The Knot & Nous Project Has Concluded

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

Before I was even Orthodox, I learned how to make prayer ropes. The prayer rope was essentially what pulled me into the Orthodox faith. It is a simple tool with a long history. It is easy to use. It is accessible. What’s more, one can never master it. There’s a certain beauty about prayer ropes that I don’t believe I will ever get over.

It’s this love for prayer ropes that made me want to make them. I discovered quickly that I had a knack for knots. Before long I had a pile of prayer ropes I know I’d never use, so I wanted to give some away. On my old twitter account, I simply tweeted that the first person to respond could have the prayer rope I posted. I got multiple responses within minutes. After a trip to the post office to send off the first prayer rope Knot & Nous ever mailed - which by coincidence was an international order - I realized that more people wanted prayer ropes, so I decided to provide them.

That week I shipped a dozen prayer ropes to a collection of people on Twitter, but the inquiries didn’t stop. Eventually I made a website, designed like a web store, where people could customize their desired prayer rope and have it made-to-order, completely free. Once I set up the site, I sent out a tweet showing it off and went to bed happy that I finally had a better way to track the incoming orders I had.

I did not expect what happened.

Shortly after I retired for the night, a well-known Orthodox priest for whom I had made a prayer rope retweeted me saying something to the effect of “yes, this is legit.” Hundreds of people flocked to the website in response and placed orders.

At one point in the middle of the night, a series of French Orthodox Discord servers got wind of what I was doing and flooded me with more orders. To this day, France is still my most shipped-to country outside the US & Canada.

By the time I woke up, I had about 120 orders waiting for me. I began making prayer ropes as quickly as I could - about 2 a day - for the first month. The orders didn’t stop, though. I also had some people reach out for special requests. I talked with so many people through email, heard so many stories, and was told of the impact that a free prayer rope made for so many. That was enough motivation to keep going.

The world made it relatively easy to keep up with orders. 4 months after the site launched, and after I had nearly caught up on orders from the first 24 hours the site was live, our wonderful government told us we couldn’t leave our homes. At least I had something to do.

It wasn’t until about August of 2020 that I had caught up on orders. Thankfully I never had to turn anyone away, not even the kind fellow from Germany who ordered what ended up being about 1000 knots worth of prayer ropes in a single order (I had forgotten to remove the “quantity” option on day one).

Four years later, I have never hired help, never used any machinery, and never outsourced the work. I have made something around 700 prayer ropes, the vast majority of them completely free. I have never charged for shipping, except for a brief time before shutting down the original website where I had separate shipping to cover the cost of international orders.

The first week of this project I received overwhelming support from the Orthodox community as well. Within that time, I received enough in donations to cover the cost of hosting the website and most of the material costs. During the first year, I paid most of the shipping costs out of pocket. I figured especially during a time when most people lost their jobs, I - who worked remotely without any interruption to my paychecks - was more than equipped to bear that financial burden.

After 2 years, though, the number of orders coming in dropped significantly, as did the financial support. I ended up closing my website and moving things here to Substack. With the low volume of orders I went back to email correspondence, and it was nice to have a break from making multiple prayer ropes a day on top of all my other obligations.

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. My life is very different from what it was in 2019. I have a different job, I live in a different state, I have another child, and I am now in the Orthodox Church. Many things remain the same, however, including my wife’s poor health, my work obligations, and the general busy-ness of maintaining a home.

I have received a number of orders in the last few months that I have had great difficulty completing, and I know that any future orders will be similarly delayed greatly. I do not want this experience for those ordering prayer ropes from me, but I also do not see a way to increase my production speed.

All that being said - and I thank you for indulging me - I have decided that after 4 years, it is time to conclude the Knot & Nous project. All current orders will be fulfilled, but I will not be accepting more. I do apologize for those who have been waiting for orders, and those who may still desire to place them.

If you are a prayer rope craftsman, please let me know, and I will gladly point people in your direction. I want to ensure that people still have access to those who can make them a prayer rope!

My dream was providing the world with free prayer ropes. I pray that with God’s help I have done so. K&N prayer ropes are currently being used in over 30 countries on 6 continents (I never did manage to get any to Antarctica). I have heard countless stories from people in various stages of life and what a prayer rope means for them. I have been deeply touched by the conversations I’ve had from people around the world. I make the announcement today with a heavy heart.

I’d like to make one final point to those online. K&N started as something I did as a catechumen. While this may not have been entirely appropriate, the only complaint my priest ever made about it was to say that I should charge money and donate the proceeds to the Church. To this day on my donate page I still point to the Resurrection Skete as the first place your money should go. For those who are catechumens, if I may be so bold, I would recommend you follow my example rather than what you see online. The Orthodox Church does not need catechumen apologists, amateur theologians, or unbaptized public representatives. By the grace of God, I wasn’t given a YouTube channel, I was given fingers. My entry into the Church is all the better for it. If you are a catechumen or a new Orthodox Christian (as I still am), please focus your attention online to how you can enter the Church, on Prayer, and on Charity.

There is much more I could say at this point, but I’ve likely been long-winded enough at this point. Thank you all for your support, and more importantly your prayers. I do hope that if you’re one of the many people still praying with a prayer rope I tied, that you occasionally say a prayer for poor Peter, who was, is, and will always be in need of your prayers.

Thank you, and good-bye.