Long-legged Knots

The third flower that I wanted to start during the classes used another technique devised by Tamura-san especially for this design. The stitch is a variation of another one called blister stitch. This is worked by first making a round knot that is later covered by a straight stitch of flat silk. Tamura-san’s variation uses long-legged knots that are also covered with a straight stitch. I have not done blister stitch or long-legged knots in any of my Phase designs so I asked Ishida-san to demonstrate the stitch to me.

Round knots are similar to colonial knots and long-legged knots are round knots with a leg. The trick is to get the knot to stay at the end of the leg. Watching Ishida-san work, I realised that I have not been working my round knots correctly. It would have been easier for me to concentrate on keeping the knot in place if I had round knots of pat but I wanted to complete some while Ishida-san was still available to advise me so I persevered and finally started to get the hang of long-legged knots. I have yet to add the straight stitches that complete the stitch.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

I will get an opportunity to practice making round knots when I add them to the flower centres. Because I knew that the knots would be stitched on top of the yellow foundation, I concentrated on making it as flat as possible in the way Tamura-san had described and I saw his son demonstrate. It still seems strange to me to have spaces between the stitches but I think this is to allow for the silk spreading when the other stitches are added.

This is all I managed to do in 3 days of class but I was more concerned with improving my technique than getting a lot done and, as I feel I learnt a lot in those three days, I am satisfied with what I have done.

© JEC/Carol-Anne Conway

As much as I want to continue with this, it has to go away for a while now so that I can focus on finishing Flutterbys.

Happy Stitching