I'm afraid I've never heard of the Colonial Knots, but I know some people use beads instead of french knots. Hopefully someone else can be of more help.
I taught myself to do the french knot. It's not hard, just keep a certain "tension" on the floss, and it shouldn't stay loose or too tight. I've noticed that if I hold the needle close to fabric, after I've wound the floss around it, holding the floss snug, then stitck the needle through the fabric, all the time hold the floss snug, the knot should come out fine. I wish I could show you in person, but I'm afraid that would be difficult!
(one of these days when I get the software installed for my digital camera, I will...)
Hope this idea helps, and doesn't muddle you up!
I wish we could do a video link as I do french knots and don't seem to have all that much of a problem I must agree with fairie56 the trick is to keep the tension at the right level. Her explanation is great. I have never heard of the other stitch I would be interested to know how it is done.
I too taught myself how to do french knots after buying a kit that required them. I just read the instructions and it seemed to make sense and away I went.
I do however, know many people who have been unable to get the knack of them, so dont feeling alone in this.
Again I agree, its about keeping an equal tension, and I also keep the needle as close to the fabric as I can. I dont let go of the thread until Ive put the needle through the fabric and pulled it most of the way through.
A video link would be fantastic, and it would make showing tips and tricks much easier.
I have had several occasions where I get half way through a post, and realsie Im not making sense and you wont be able following me without 'seeing' what i mean.
Try this URL, it even has a video. It seems to be important to wind your thread the correct way around the needle. Get this wrong, and when you pull through, you have a itty-bitty straight stitch. Which isn't helpful.
Serinde
Thanks for the link. Have had a look and saved it to my favourites and will watch it the next time I have to french knots and hopefully will managed to finally master knots,
That was perfect just the way that I have done mine in the past. I didn't know they had tips on there site. I buy alot from them but mostly just use the magazine not the web page. Thanks that was a great look at how to do the knot.
Thats the sort of thing we need to have permanent access to from this site. I dont know about you guys, but I always forget where Ive seen/read things here. thanks serinade.
One other thing about french knots. It looked like she used 2 strands of thread in the video which she wound twice around the needle. Ive always found this method to work best. However on some charts Ive had to use one thread.... a bit trickier, as if you hold it too tight it can slip through, so I dilibrately did the knot a little looser, and had good results. but I did have a pattern once that said wind the knot only once - i never did get that one to work!
I think once you mastered doing the knots, you get a feel for how big they will look, and can decide to use 2 strands or one (despite what the pattern advises). I did a tatty ted recently and he had french knots for his eyes, and they were quite small eyes quite close together, so one thread worked best.
I some times use beads but if the beads are to big fro the project then i do do the french knots i hate doing them because some times they go wrong and are difficult to rectify the problem and makes your work look untidy.
But when you do one you have to make sure that the thread is pulled tight to create a nice french knot.
I have to say that french notes scared the living daylights out of me when I first started stitching, if you look closely in my gallery at my xmassie one...the snow flakes on it are meant to be french note but I couldn't get the hang of them....I've done quite a few (again) if you look in the gallery you will see which ones had a lot of french notes on them. As with everything in life 'practise makes perfect' (with french notes not all the time but most of the time lol )
Thanks 
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