The spoon necklace was variable length. I never had to take it off. At maximum length I could stir the pot or add spices, or test taste by stooping over slightly without having to bend my knees. Then the knots were slid back together so the spoon now hung at breasbone height and could be placed in a shirt pocket, with a minimum of dangling cord. I came up with the idea because I kept misplacing my spoon due to darkness and drunkenness. I've seen pots tilt and slosh but the funniest part of my incident was that the pot went from upright to completely inverted in 1/10th of a second!