How Easy is It?
The classical and sometimes whimsical designs are simple to stitch, yet yield exquisite results.
Once you learn how to form the two knots that fill in the design, it is as simple as coloring in a coloring book. For people who like counted cross-stitch and other types of embroidery, these projects are a natural progression. They are also a good introduction to embroidery for the beginner.
For many years needle workers have disagreed over the number of times one should wrap the thread around the needle to form a French knot. After making them by the zillions (that's an official number), I have decided that French knots have only one wrap. There is sound reasoning behind my decision; please allow me to explain:
1. A matter of thread control: French knots are supposed to be round. Wrap more than once around the needle and it is nearly impossible to make a round knot. We’ve all done it... Wrap, wrap...WONKY! This method of forming a knot is very hard to control. If you need a larger knot, rather than making more wraps, it is really much easier and comes out more shapely if you simply use a larger needle and more strands of floss or the alternative would be to use a different (but very controllable) knot... the Colonial Knot.
2. A matter of mechanics: If you wrap the thread more than once around the needle you are actually making the beginnings of a bullion stitch, which by it’s very nature, wants to lay, like a tiny spring, flat on the fabric’s surface. There are embroideries that use a double-wrap or triple-wrap knot, but it stands on end like a spiral, not a plump, round sphere. These embroideries are Chinese and it took master embroiderers to create them. The stitch is the “Chinese Forbidden Stitch.”
3. A matter of knowledge and communication: Needlework knowledge is passed from person to person over generations and hundreds of years, much like playing telephone (that game where you pass a secret from person to person and see how it comes out at the end of the line). It would be impossible for the original technique to have made it through all those people and generations without someone’s Aunt Gertie changing it a bit here or there because she thought her way made the knot bigger, faster or good enough!
4. It has been argued by many that "actual published books teach us to make French knots with two or more wraps," and they must be correct or they wouldn’t be published. Being an author myself, I can assure you that the content of any given book is only as good as the author’s knowledge (which may have been passed on to said author by Aunt Gertie).
I agree that there are usually several ways of doing any given task, but I also know there may be one way that works better than most. So, if you want your French knots to be easy to make, and uniform in size and shape, my conclusion is that French knots have only one wrap.
Once you learn how to form the two knots that fill in the design, it is as simple as coloring in a coloring book. For people who like counted cross-stitch and other types of embroidery, these projects are a natural progression. They are also a good introduction to embroidery for the beginner.
For many years needle workers have disagreed over the number of times one should wrap the thread around the needle to form a French knot. After making them by the zillions (that's an official number), I have decided that French knots have only one wrap. There is sound reasoning behind my decision; please allow me to explain:
1. A matter of thread control: French knots are supposed to be round. Wrap more than once around the needle and it is nearly impossible to make a round knot. We’ve all done it... Wrap, wrap...WONKY! This method of forming a knot is very hard to control. If you need a larger knot, rather than making more wraps, it is really much easier and comes out more shapely if you simply use a larger needle and more strands of floss or the alternative would be to use a different (but very controllable) knot... the Colonial Knot.
2. A matter of mechanics: If you wrap the thread more than once around the needle you are actually making the beginnings of a bullion stitch, which by it’s very nature, wants to lay, like a tiny spring, flat on the fabric’s surface. There are embroideries that use a double-wrap or triple-wrap knot, but it stands on end like a spiral, not a plump, round sphere. These embroideries are Chinese and it took master embroiderers to create them. The stitch is the “Chinese Forbidden Stitch.”
3. A matter of knowledge and communication: Needlework knowledge is passed from person to person over generations and hundreds of years, much like playing telephone (that game where you pass a secret from person to person and see how it comes out at the end of the line). It would be impossible for the original technique to have made it through all those people and generations without someone’s Aunt Gertie changing it a bit here or there because she thought her way made the knot bigger, faster or good enough!
4. It has been argued by many that "actual published books teach us to make French knots with two or more wraps," and they must be correct or they wouldn’t be published. Being an author myself, I can assure you that the content of any given book is only as good as the author’s knowledge (which may have been passed on to said author by Aunt Gertie).
I agree that there are usually several ways of doing any given task, but I also know there may be one way that works better than most. So, if you want your French knots to be easy to make, and uniform in size and shape, my conclusion is that French knots have only one wrap.
A word about knots… you know the kind… you are stitching along and Bam! The thread stops short. These knots will almost certainly form in your thread as you stitch and can become a frustrating mess. The best defense against these intruders is to STITCH GENTLY. The knots that form as you stitch are almost always slip knots and are easy to remove if you haven’t pulled them in with a vengeance in the first place. The more gently you treat them, the easier they are to remove. So relax and stitch gently.
If it turns out the knot in your thread has more will power than you have patience, you are in luck. In this kind of needlework, the last stitch you made was a knot so you can end the thread right there (yes, just cut it off) then, begin again.
If it turns out the knot in your thread has more will power than you have patience, you are in luck. In this kind of needlework, the last stitch you made was a knot so you can end the thread right there (yes, just cut it off) then, begin again.
The Colonial Knot
Right Handed |
The Colonial Knot
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