Knot Guide is one of the most useful apps on my DROID. Tying knots has long been one of my weakest skills. Ask my father, as he did his best to help me at Scout camp back in the day. That was one merit badge that brought me to tears. Literally!

Thankfully, today we have a Knot Guide app. Colorful images and step-by-step instructions gently guide you through the entire process of successfully tying more than 80 knots. With full-color images, complete with a red and blue stripes rope and notations, you’ll be making solid Zeppelin Bends and, well, perfect Perfection Loops in no time.

Forget those old black and white images and ditch the dog-eared books; your DROID does a superlative job of explaining the uses for each knot, then offers a set of simple images to step through each knot to get the job done.

One minor flaw: You must have a data connection to download each series of photos as you switch between knots. If you have a single, specific knot you’ll need help tying in the great outdoors, open it and step through the images before heading out. The knot sequence will be saved in memory (cached) and available until you try to switch to another.

With new knots added often, here’s the latest listing of knot categories and the number of unique entries in each (as of August 2010):

Bends (16), Binding Knots (2), Climbing Knots (26), Decorative Knots (5), Fishing Knots (18), Hitches (End) (21), Hitches (Middle) (10), Lashings (4), Loops (Fixed) (10), Loops (Slip) (7), Rope Care (2), Sailing Knots (26), Scout Knots (10), Shortenings (1), Stopper Knots (6)