I will be forming the grommet around the wooden cylinder shown. I have wound the sennit tightly around the cylinder and counted the bights. I make it 22 but as the number of bights for the 8-plait Square grommet must be an odd number, I'll use 23 bights. 21 bights would also suffice.
Form a 4 part 23 bight common grommet using the "cylinder and pins" method. It's just like forming a 4-part Turks Head but , working from left to right, go over all on the way up and under all on the way down. This gives left -hand lay.
Pin the standing part of the second cord in any centre compartment and go over 4 then under 4( over 2 crosses then under 2 crosses). Proceed like this all the way round.
Start the second turn as shown coming out on the left. There will be 4 parts with this cord the same as the brown cord and it will be given right hand lay.
Proceed as shown by going over all from left to right and under all from right to left and not forgetting ,relative to the brown cord, o4 and up.
Start 3rd turn
Keep going round until you have 4 turns as shown.
Arrange the ends so that they emerge from underneath the knot.
Do the same with the other 2 ends.
Remove all pins and take the initial slack out of brown.
Initial slack removed. It doesn't look like 8-plait Square Grommet so far! However, twist the grommet one way or the other so that all 4 ends still emerge from underneath the knot.
Here you can see that the grommet has assumed it's normal configuration. All that remains to be done is to transfer it onto the job and tighten fully.
All finished!
Also shown is the same knot in one colour which I prefer. I hope you enjoy using this alternative method for the 8-plait Square Grommet.
Joe Bennett