Pliers

A good way to begin practicing fancy knot work is to customize the tools you use.
Here is my pair of pliers - like I said previously, an inexpensive pair of Kobalt needle nose with SMOOTH jaws.
Since they are spring loaded, I first had to find a way to keep them closed for storage. My solution was to tie a jug sling knot in a piece of net twine. These directions for the jug sling knot are about the best I've seen. Once you learn it this way you will do it this way every time.
Then to finish it off I tied a two strand lanyard knot.
Over the last couple of days I added the turks heads on the handles.