Embellish it With Knots: The Dragonfly

This dragonfly can be made in any color you want, just use two different colors that match well with the purse, bag or garment you are embellishing with it. It would also look cute also on afghan blocks!

Materials:

Red Heart worsted weight yarn Tea Leaf
Red Heart worsted weight yarn Spring Green
Crochet hook size H
Blunt needle
Scissors
Previous knowledge on how to make French or Colonial Knot (see previous tutorials that teach the knots. You will find them here:
http://craftypursenalityshoppe.blogspot.com/2011/01/texture-it-with-knots-french-knot-and.html)

Body-

With Tea Leaf, ch 11.
Row 1- 1 sc in 3rd ch from hook, and in each ch across. Fasten off, leaving long tail to sew with.

Wings-

Skip 3 sc, join Spring to 4th sc, ch 10, sl st in same sc, fasten off, leaving long tail to make knots with.
Skip 1 sc and repeat wing on next sc.
Rep two wings on opposite side.
Thread needle and sew center of body to the crocheted fabric you want to embellish with a running stitch or any stitch you are comofortable with. Fasten off.
Thread needle and sew the wings onto the crocheted fabric, fasten off.
Thread needle with Spring Green and make a row of 4 French or Colnial knots in a straight line inside each wing. Fasten off.
That's it! You have an easy dragonfly you can increase or reduce in size and add to purses, wallets, eyeglass cases, clothing, beanies, quilt blocks, etc.

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Texture It With Knots! Heart---1

There are many kinds of hearts you can make with knots. And I am sure that when you have practiced a little bit you will come up with your favorite way of making these. I will try to share two with you that are of my own design. Think of how pretty a black purse or tote would look full of bright hearts made in different shades or red, dark pink and orangey-red all formed by texture-rich knots! That will also be unusual and different, because you will be making these after you have already made the purse, but before you add the lining and the handle. Also, if you are making a garment, you can make a couple of rows of these along the bottom of a top (also the sleeves), etc. Endless ideas will come to your mind as you work with these.

If you have joined our tutorials just now and do not know how to make the French Knot or the Colonial Knot, please go back and check out our past lesson. Practice the knots and then come back so that you will be able to attain satisfactory results with your stitching.
Here is where you will find the tutorial you need to see:
Texture It With Knots French Knot and Colonial Knot


For those of you who have been following these tutorials and already practiced the stitches, let's go on. I have enlosed a chart for you to guide yourselves.
Materials suggested:
If working on a yarn purse or garment, you can use the following yarn suggestions, if you are working on cotton, use Pearl cotton or embroidery floss, Practice on a scrap for thickness of knot and effect you would like the achieve.
For the sample, I used the following reds:
Red Heart worsted weight yarn Ranch Red (darkest shade)
Red Heart worsted weight yarn Cherry Red
Red Heart worsted weight yarn Hot Red
I used a blunt needle because I used yarn, if you will be working with Pearl cotton or with embroidery floss, use an appropriate needle.
Scissors
I cut a 30" length of Ranch Red yarn to make the first heart. As you work you will be able to gauge better who much you will need. I don't like my knots to be too tight because they look too small. Look carefully at the chart because it will be your guide. Each square of the chart represents 1 sc stitch of crocheted fabric on your purse or garment. The knot I chose to use was the French knot, and instead of making 2 wraps, I made 3 wraps for added thickness of the knot.


Following the chart, make the first knot by coming out through the fabric at the center of the sc stitch (right underneath the vertical loop that all backside sc stitches have) that is the easiest way to guide your stitches when you are a beginner. Holding the needle behind the yarn, wrap 3 times, and then go back into the crocheted fabric by inserting the needle not at the place where you came out at the beginning, but right in between that stitch and the previous stitch. pull your thread through, straighten out your knot. Make a knot the same way in the center of the nect sc.
Skip 3 sc, make 1 knot in each of the next two sc. Come back out on the row below, 1 sc to the right of the last one you just made and following the chart again, complete 1 knot in each of the following 4 sc, counting from right to left. Skip next sc, 1 French knot is next sc. Take thread to back and fasten off. Cut 46 inches of Cherry Red. Thread blunt needle and work 1 French knot in each of next 3 sc as before, moving from right to left.
Come out in new row, still following your chart, and make 1 French knot in first sc right underneath the last Cherry Red knot made. Continue maing 1 French knot in each of next 8 sc. Take needle to the back. Fasten off. Cut 30 inches of Cherry Red and thread a needle again.
Come up from the back and make 1 French knot in each of first 7 sc of row right below the last one. Fasten off. Cut 92 inches of Hot Red. Thread blunt needle again, this time with Hot Red.
Make last 2 knots of row with Hot Red.
Next row, skip first sc and make 5 knots across. Go to the back and come up again in the next row. Skip first 2 sc and make 1 French knot in each of next 3 sc, skip all the rest. Go to the back and come up again in row below, skipping first 2 sc, make French knot in next sc. This forms the point of the heart. Go to the back and fasten off.
Note- When you pull your knots tight, do so carefully, so that you will not pull your knot all the way to the back! Make sure your knots are well shaped so that they will not unravel with use.
Practice in a scrap of crochet until you are very sure of your French or Colonial knots (they are interchangeable) then go for it!
Following the chart, continue with Hot Red, making 1 knot per square on the chart, until you are done with the heart. Fasten off. I added a couple of knots to my heart to make it chunkier because of the photo, but you can make a pretty heart following just the "x" stitches in the chart.
You just made your first heart! Practice until you can make them with your eyes closed. Then you can adapt them and make them with a hollow center, or make them with less rows. You can make a string of heart or even chanve the direction in which the hearts point.
We will make one more heart in our next tutorial.



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Texture It With Knots! The Bullion Knot

Now, if you don't want to make puff balls, or if you already used the puff balls and would like to use another kind of embellishment to create texture, use knots!
We will be making different knots, so you will learn to make them and by eaither scattering them all over your project or using them to follow a design of your own invention, go for it! This and the following classes will enable you to use decorative knots from now on.

Let's start with the Embroidery Bullion Knot.
You know Bullions from crochet, the embroidery bullion is pretty similar, but you can add bullions to your project after the fact, by using embroidery bullion knots.

You can add them in a pattern of your own choosing, you can scatter them all over, you can add them horizontally or vertically, and you can curve them like semi-circles.

You can use yarn on yarn, tone on tone, or contrasting colors and a different thread from the yarn used for your purse, bag or garment. For example, you can use Perle embroidery cotton, you can make them with a #10 cotton thread, you can use metallic thread, you can use satiny rayon thread, variegated embroidery thread,etc. The possibilities are almost endless.

This particular knot is also known as a caterpillar stitch or a coil stitch because you can use it as coils in a decorative manner. It all depends on how many times you will wrap the thread or yarn around your needle, if you do it say, 20 times, you will have a longer bullion and you can arch it a bit and turn it into a semi-circle.
Usually, you will wrap 15 times and you will get a straight bullion. If you would like to have an interesting effect with this thread, you can use 3 or 4 contrasting embroidery threads threaded through your blunt or embroidery needle. This stitch can be used a s a powdering, here and there as an accent, or you can mass it together, thus making a very dense textured filling following a pattern of your own invention; you can work it closely together to form a textured outline to other motifs you may want to sew onto a piece or just use it to add interest an a splash of color and a surprise where you would like it.

Before you begin, you have to decide whether you want the bullion to lie straight or if you want it to curve (for it to curve you only need tomake it longer and add mroe wraps to the needle). As with everything new, please, practice with a scrap piece until you are confindent with the stithc and then add it to your project to embellish it!

To work your Bullion proceed as follows, insert the needle into the crocheted fabric where you want it, from back to front, insert the needle again a little bit further, as far as you want theBullion to go, and without pushing the needle through the crocheted fabric all the way through, wrap the thread or yarn around the needle, 10 to 12 times for yarn or thick thread, 15 to 20 times for very fine embroidery thread or fine cotton crochet thread, not to tightly, because it will make it hard to pull the needle, and pull the needle through the wraps. Pull all the way till all the thread has gone through the curls of the wraps and all you have left is the Bullion.
To anchor the stitch, bring the needle to the back at the spot where you started.

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