When I first decided to learn how to tie Yemenite tzitzit, it wasn’t easy. The online videos I watched were very hard to follow, so I went to a local Yemenite Jew and he taught me very patiently, but I didn’t really get the hang of it. Then I went to an Ashkenazi yeshiva bachur who wore Ptil Tekhelet which he tied according to the Rambam. He kept telling me that if I understood the logic behind the form of the knot, it would be easier, but I actually found the opposite to be true. And my knots still came out wrong. Finally I went to another local Yemenite. He taught me just as his father had taught him when he was a kid. The technique was easier for me to grasp and the knots started to come out right.

In recent months the number of orders we receive for Rambam tzitzit tying has gone up, so I tried outsourcing some of the work, but they kept tying the knots really close, which I feel is less aesthetic. It also leaves you with a very short tied section and a very long loose section.

Although tying according to the Rambam tzitzit tying method seems complicated, once you get it down pat I find it to be less time-consuming than Sephardic tzitzit tying, and certainly Chabad tzitzit tying. Of course if you are tying with techelet strings, things get more complicated.