[jesterpm]

The book I learned from suggested five types of knots for different problems and suggested learning one of type, which I found to be a great starting point.

The five were: a stopper knot, to keep a line from pulling through something, a fixed loop, a running loop, a hitch (attach a line to a thing), and a bend (attach a rope to a rope).

My go-to knots were a figure 8, bowline, running bowline, clove hitch, and sheet bend respectively.