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Hi everyone,
I need some advice. I have just bought DMC Sundial Cottage from a charity shop and thought it such a pretty picture. I went to start it last night, very keen as I always am when I start a new project........then I thought I had better read the chart and have discovered that it has millions of french knots well not exactly millions but all the flowers are knots and the garden is full of them. I have put a picture on my profile if anyone should want to look. Anyway, I avoid them like my life depends on it and put beads on instead. Always works and enhances the finished result I think. However, as there are such a lot of them in this kit I would like opinion on what to do I have never done a project with so many knots to potentially change with beads. What would you do?

I would practice, practice, practice.

Well.. heres the good thing.. with millions of those little suckers.. you'll be an expert by the end

I'm not a fan of the french knot either. When I last did them (it was the little grey dots on the toe part of a baby's shoe) I just made tiny little crosses instead, pulled loosely so the grey thread stayed on top of the white shoe part.

I've finally mastered French knots, but before I did I used Colonial knots, which I found were easier to work. Here's a video tutorial for it.

I would give the design away and start stitching something else. It doesn't make sense to stitch something that you don't like stitching, even when the finished picture is beautiful.

I like french knots!!
I would say practice a few before committing to the whole load of them!

Perhaps a few knots and a few beads sprinkled about??

I agree with Wendy I love french knots and have done a whole blanket of them. So a few practice stitches and then have fun with them don't react to them as if you are doing battle.

I'd grab a piece of scrap fabric and practice a bit. There are a lot of online vids on how to do them easily! I'll admit that I hated them when I first started, but after a while they aren't as intimidating and once you get the technique down they aren't so bad at all.

If you find that you just can't bring yourself to do them, then I suppose substituting beads or full crosses instead could work.

I agree that practice is what it takes. I also hated french knots when I started cross stitching but I hated beads more and so when I do a pattern that calls for beads i use french knots and now that there are jeweled threads and luminescent threads I figure it will look even better the next time I have to do it.

But I agree completely with Offe and if you can't learn to like them I

would give the design away and start stitching something else. It doesn't make sense to stitch something that you don't like stitching, even when the finished picture is beautiful.

Carole

If there are a TON of French knots, I just won't do the project. I watched the videos, practiced for a couple hours, and STILL couldn't do them

I always dreaded FKs and avoided them at all costs. Where they were unavoidable, I would use seed beads instead. However, I decided to try and master them and so I designed a biscornu that had quite a few and then stitched it. As a result, i go tso much more confident with them and now Im' not bothered at all. If I have to do one, then I do.

Practice, practice, practice.

I could never do the dreaded knots either! But mastered them now don't see why I had so much trouble doing them to start with.

They way I learnt to do them is get scarp fabric and thread and watch a tutorial video and do exactly what there doing as you watch. A real stitch along if you like. By the end of the video I could do them easy

I couldnt do french knots at all and wouldnt even consider a design that had them in, but then I decided that I would have to do them at some point as lots of designs I liked had them. So I did what everyone else has suggested. Lots of practice..... I suprised myself that I had halfway decent french knots after a only a few go s. Once I figured out that tension on the thread was key, it wasnt so bad. Now I quite like doing them, but between you and me they are not always perfect but they do the job. Good Luck