# The alternating twist that keeps a cable from kinking > A four-step diagram — loop, then twist one way, then the other — showing why a cable coiled with alternating turns pays out straight instead of slowly kinking itself into a break. August 20, 2026 · https://justog.club/stories/the-way-he-coils-a-cable A slate tee, worn from the chest down. Four steps run left to right in bright cream: a hand forming a loop, then two turns twisted one way, then two more twisted the opposite way — the alternation plainly visible, small arrows marking each direction, the numbers one to four sitting under each step. No boxes. No rules between them. It looks like fuss for about four seconds. Then the point of it is obvious. ## Why does alternating the direction of each loop matter? Because a cable coiled the same direction every time is quietly storing up a twist that a coil made the alternating way never builds. Loop it clockwise, clockwise, clockwise and every turn adds a little rotation to the cable that has nowhere to go — it accumulates along the whole length, invisible until the coil is thrown down and the cable fights back, twisting itself into loops that won't lie flat. Alternate the direction — over, under, over, under — and each turn cancels the rotation the last one put in. The cable comes off the coil the way it went on: straight. ## What's actually happening inside the cable itself? A build-up of torsion in the conductor and the sheath around it, turn after turn, that eventually has to go somewhere. A cable is flexible enough to bend without complaint, but every wrap in one direction twists the strands inside it a fraction further from where they started. Nothing looks wrong for a long time — that's what makes a same-direction habit so easy to keep. The twist doesn't show up as damage until it finds the weak point: a kink that won't pull out, then a crack in the sheath at exactly that kink, long after the coiling habit that caused it. ## Why is this shown as a diagram instead of written down as instructions? Because this is the kind of knowledge that has always travelled by being watched, not by being read. Nobody hands over a cable-coiling manual. Somebody coils it in front of you, badly explained in words and perfectly clear in the hands, and the motion gets copied until it's automatic. A diagram on a shirt sits closer to that than a paragraph ever could — four still frames of a motion that's normally seen in one continuous, wordless loop. ## Do I need permission to print a coiling technique? No — the way a hand forms a loop or alternates a twist belongs to nobody. A method isn't ownable the way an image or a name is; this is a motion independently rediscovered by roadies, electricians and sailors for as long as there have been cables and ropes to coil. ### The one thing that would need it If the diagram reproduced a specific manufacturer's own instructional artwork line for line, that artwork would be theirs. An original drawing of the same universal motion, like this one, needs nobody's sign-off. Style has no owner. A work does. ## Does the same alternating principle apply to anything besides cables? Rope and hose both twist under the same logic and get the same fix. It's a close cousin to [the fold sequence that turns a fitted sheet flat](/stories/the-fitted-sheet) — another motion nobody works out alone, shown once by somebody who was shown it, that really only lives as a sequence of hand positions rather than a paragraph. ## Isn't alternating every single loop more trouble than it's worth? For the four seconds it takes to notice you're doing it, maybe. After that it isn't a decision any more — the hands learn the alternation the way they learn [how a note gets folded to fit an envelope](/stories/the-way-he-folds-a-note), and the extra half-second per loop disappears into a habit that costs nothing next to a cable ruined by a kink it never needed to develop. ## Does it print well? Yes, in one or two flat tones — the whole design is line and arrow, exactly the kind of mark that stays crisp at fabric scale. Numbered steps and directional arrows are small but high-contrast, so as long as the cream sits well clear of the slate underneath, nothing here approaches the weave's floor. The same discipline [a stamped tool handle needs kept simple](/stories/his-tools-are-labelled) applies to the numerals under each step: bold, plain, no serif detail thin enough to fill in. ## How do I get one made? Describe the technique at [JustOG](/) — how many turns per step, which hand does the twisting, how tight the alternation runs. Pick a direction, drag the crop frame, see it composited on the real garment, and it's made to order and shipped. Designs other people have published are in the [shop](/shop). Four steps, no boxes between them, and a cable that will pay out straight every time.