The Knotty Stitches

All photos in this post are clickable for larger version

Lover's Knot, Solomon's Knot, or Some Call it Hail Stone

Fear not the knots, because once you know which loop to yarn over into the rest is doing a single crochet!

The tricky part of this stitch is twofold. First, knowing what loop to work the single crochet into. When instructions say "back loop" they mean what the arrow is pointing to in the above photo. The second aspect of this stitch that takes some practice is making consistently sized loops. If you are making a wearable that uses this stitch you'll want to make sure you make the required loop size to maintain stitch gauge. (Stitch gauge is a four-letter word!)

Once you are in the loop (pun intended) then go ahead and work a single crochet. Voilà! The knot is completed!

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

Often you'll be instructed to make double knots and single knots in the same pattern. To make a double knot, just repeat what you did for the first knot.

Go Knots!

The knot stitch is often used to create a lace effect. Shawls and shrugs and sometimes doilies feature this stitch. If you are ready to go knots, try these free patterns:

• Solomon's Knot Shawl
• Everyday Shawl
• Crochet Lace Glove

I'm Still in Knots

If you would like more resources to help you further perfect your knots, just click these links for additional tutorials.

• Annie's Attic Love Knot
• Annie's Attic Double Love Knot
• Lover's or Solomon's Knot
• Solomon's Knot
• About.com Lover's Knot

What Stitch Is Next?

I haven't decided on next month's stitch and I'd like your input. What stitch would you like to see featured? E-mail me with your stitch suggestion.

Picot De-Mystified

There’s more than one way to picot

A post to the board from August 2005 asked “What stitch do you hate the most?” Many replied that the picot stitch is their nemesis. Thus I was inspired to feature this stitch for the month. It’s not my intention to win anyone over to this stitch, but perhaps to make it less daunting. There are two types of picot stitch that I am aware of:

• small picot: slip stitch picot (harder)
• large picot: sc, chain 3 [or 4], slip stich in sc (easier)

So far it may seem like this is getting more complicated; especially when I mentioned that some of the frustration to the picot may be caused by how you hold your hook!