This is a minor curiosity that I've been wondering about. Suppose that we draw a closed curve in the plane and that this curve intersects itself several times, but never twice in one spot. We can knot the curve by traveling along the curve and assigning over- and under-crossings alternately as we reach each intersection. It seems, as I have been told, that this will never cause a contradiction, i.e. under and over crossings will always match up. Why is this case?
I am not too familiar with know nothing about knot theory. If there is a non-technical proof of this result, or perhaps a proof involving graph theory, that would be wonderful.
Below are some diagrams to illustrate what I mean
A trefoil knot formed by assigning alternate over and under crossings.
A more complicated alternating curve.