🪢 The Instant Knot

The Instant Knot for kids: the whole trick

You challenge your friend to tie a knot in a piece of string while holding one end in each hand, and never letting go. They twist and loop and give up. You pick it up and do it in one move. It's a level 1 apprentice trick for ages 6 to 11 (grades 1st–5th), takes 5 minutes to learn, and needs one thing you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.

The secret

You fold your arms before you pick up the ends. Your arms are already tied in a knot, and when you unfold them the knot slides into the string.

What you need

• A piece of string or yarn

How to do it

1. Lay the string out on the table and explain the challenge.
2. They hold one end in each hand and must tie a knot without letting go. They can't.
3. Your turn. Fold your arms across your chest first, and say nothing about it.
4. Keeping your arms folded, pick up the left end with your right hand.
5. Pick up the right end with your left hand. Still don't let go.
6. Now unfold your arms slowly. A knot appears in the middle.

Magic words to say

“It's easy, this one. You just have to think backwards. Most people try to tie the string. I tie myself first and let the string catch up.”

Pro tips

• Fold your arms while you're talking about something else, so nobody connects it to the trick.
• Thick wool shows the knot better than thin string, and it's easier to pick up.
• Hand the string over and let them try again. Half of them will work it out, and the other half will come back tomorrow.

If something goes wrong

If no knot appears, you let go of an end somewhere. Say "let me show you that again more slowly", because this is a puzzle, and a puzzle is allowed a second go.

Safety notes

• Needs a helper.
• No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.

What kind of trick is this?

🎩 Production. Something appears out of nowhere. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.

The skill it teaches: Working with helpers. A helper should walk away feeling brilliant. Perform it and it counts towards the Paper Wizard badge.

Questions about the instant knot

Who is the most famous magician?

Harry Houdini is probably the most famous magician who ever lived. He was an escape artist, famous for getting out of handcuffs, locks, chains and jail cells. Plenty of magicians since have been household names, but Houdini is the one whose name became a word.

Who was Houdini?

Harry Houdini was an escape artist and magician, born Erik Weisz in Budapest on 24 March 1874 and brought up in the United States. He escaped from handcuffs, jail cells and a locked milk can, and he spent years showing that fake fortune tellers were tricking people. He died on Halloween, 31 October 1926.

More from The Paper and String Drawer

• 🕳️ The Hole in Your Hand Illusion (level 1, 1 minute)
• 📎 The Linking Paper Clips (level 1, 2 minutes)
• 🚪 Walk Through a Piece of Paper (level 2, 15 minutes)
• 🧻 The Torn and Restored Napkin (level 3, 2 to 4 days)
• All 80 magic tricks for kids, the easy ones by age, and how to put on a magic show