My first knotting shuttle embroidery project. I also hope to make some videos that explain knotting -- a lot of friends and family had no idea what I was talking about.
Wow! Imagine my surprise when I woke up Wednesday morning and my website stats had exploded!
The weirdest part? Most of the hits were new, from the UK mostly (with a few other European countries) — and they arrived at my site through various search terms about knotting shuttles.
Is there something going on centering around knotting? A museum display or lecture, perhaps? Someone on a forum getting interest rolling? Curious minds want to know! 🙂
You see, I’m new to not only knotting shuttles, but embroidery in general. I love it! It’s so fun and relaxing. Even my husband will sit with me while we watch TV and knot with me. He has even asked if he could learn to embroider a small, simple project for himself!
I’ve had a lot of people — especially non-costumers — asking me what I’m talking about, all this knotting and knotting shuttles business. They’re not sure how or why I’m doing this. A few have even asked for videos, so they can understand better.
My husband and I decided to try to make some videos. He’s made a few non-related videos and would like more practice. Although I’m still new to it, there is so little out there about knotting — I might as well! Besides, it’ll be fun, and perhaps I’ll meet other knotters and pick up more tips and resources for study.
So keep an eye out. Hopefully the videos will go smoothly and I can share them soon. As I said, I don’t claim to be an expert — far from it, actually — but it’s so fun and relaxing, I just want to share it with others!
And thanks for visiting!
Hopefully by the weekend we can get a couple videos put together 🙂
Yeah, I think I have about 7 or 8 planned so far… I want to keep them short and cover the different knots and aspects separately. I think it will be fun!
Looking forward to seeing you in action, Cynthia.
There is so little information on knotting available on-line so you are on your way to becoming a great resource if you don’t watch it 😀
Not that I’d mind in the least 😉
@Jaci Thanks! I hope it all works out… never thought I’d have to learn how to mess with video editing. Ha!
@Madame Berg I was very hesitant at first to talk about knotting because I am still learning, but you’re right — there is very little out there. Maybe it’s because there isn’t a lot to know, I don’t know (there could be a lot more to it for all I know), but it’s my hope to add to the information available. There are no videos yet that I’m aware of. At the very least, I can help introduce it to more people who might enjoy it or even meet those who know more about knotting shuttles! Wow, I can just imagine someone coming across the videos and contacting me with “hey! I do this too — here’s my website and I share information from museum pieces and old books!” Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part, but that would be wonderful! 😀
Honestly though, it really surprises me that there aren’t more people talking about knotting shuttles aside from the one website and mention of it on a tatting site. I wonder how many people do it, but just don’t talk about it online? A lot of the costumers I know are so busy making tons of garments from all eras and fandom, but they draw a line at obsessing too much over the fine details like embroidery. I must admit, I need to stop thinking so much about my projects in terms of embroidery and just start sewing. I’m getting bad about it (and accessories — which really add to the costumes and experience, but I have actual garments I need to sew as well heheh).
Cynthia, I am so looking forward to videos of this! I’m really curious about knotting now. One reason I’m interested (and maybe others are too) is that at events, it’s really nice to have some kind of fancywork to do that is easy to move about, doesn’t take up much room in a bag or basket, and doesn’t require intense concentration. I was at a three day event recently and didn’t want to be idle so I took a sewing project along with me (an 18thc man’s shirt) to do whenever I sat down and was bored. Unfortunately, I just didn’t get much done because it really was unwieldy to carry around in my basket while watching demonstrations, and then I had to fiddle with needle and thread and scissors….something smaller like knotting would be much more ideal. So bring on the videos! 🙂
Knotting is definitely fun and easy to do (with very little to haul around). In May, I went with my husband while he renewed his driver’s license, and I took my knotting shuttle with me. While it wasn’t a really long wait, I was there for a while and did quite a bit. No trouble in the crowded room, since it doesn’t take up much space. There were a few weird looks, but not as much as I thought I might have at first.
Sorry it’s taking me a little while to get the videos together. I don’t know if I’ll ever have the chance to make too many other videos, so we’re having some fun making them as nice as we can with our limited skills 😀
I’m actually hoping it not only inspires more people who know how to do this to put more information about knotting online in various formats, but also get others interested in trying it themselves. I was already having fun with embroidery before, but I’m really hooked on it after trying knotting.
I’d actually love to see embroidery in a lot of different formats. Instead of just listed as “embroidery,” I would love to see it broken up in the different types so you can more easily find examples that have knotting, or ribbons, or metallic/beading/you-get-the-idea. I’m kind of guessing as I go along, but it would be nice to have a lot more inspiration pieces to pull from easily.