Tips on Square Alpha Knots?
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QueenVia22
Professional
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5 days, 18 hours ago by QueenVia22
I’m struggling to keep my alpha bracelets form looking stretched out, and it seems the reason is because my knots are rectangular. I tie my knots loosely and push up on my knots with a spare bobbin, but it doesn’t seem to work. Any tips?
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just_mere
Bracelet King
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5 days, 14 hours ago by just_mere
This is sort of an embroidery technique, but in order to make your knots a bit smaller and less rectangular, you could try taking the thread apart. Embroidery thread is composed of 6 smaller threads, and you can separate them in order to make smaller or larger things for embroidery. So, I would suggest maybe separating the string down to 5 or 4 threads? Although I’ll be honest 😂 from looking at your photos of alphas they don’t seem to be all that stretched out to me
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QueenVia22
Professional
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3 days, 18 hours ago by QueenVia22
@just_mere I’ll be sure to try it out! My knots look fine from the front, but when they are turned sideways the designs tend to look stretched out, especially on larger patterns (: |
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Bullfish
Advanced
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3 days, 16 hours ago by Bullfish
Speaking of Alphas I struggled a lot with knots pointing into knotting direction, so leaning to the right on forwards rows and leaning to the left on backward rows. And I always wanted to create square-like knots. Personally I hate thin embroidery floss and so I tested like tons of brands and I never mix between those and too thin embroidery floss is banned into separate boxes. But all that reflects my individual taste. The thinner a thread is, the more uneven the final result will be for me. I never use embroidery floss itself as base strands, it seems too soft to me. I found a cheap crochet strand, No. 8, so it turns out to be slightly thicker than my favorite brands of embroidery floss. Often I received this tip for using slightly thicker base strands in alphas for a more even knotting and yes, it works for me. Also I went back to knotting real slow, because the faster I knot, the more the knots lean into knotting direction. So I really pull up the working thread completely straight and I hold the base string absolutely straight downwards. The more I did that, the more normal my movements became and as well the faster I became again. Final results turn out more and more even. As for knotting: I pull tight first half of the knot and second halt I can pull more or less tighter. That is something everyone has to find out on his/her own. While working on an alpha I avoid to work on normal patterns at the same time, pulling strings and hand movement is different and, speaking for me, I can see it inside an alpha, when I took a break and knotted a normal pattern in between. So my setup is: Use slightly thicker base strings Use one brand of embroidery floss only, for me thin strings do not work at all Pay attention to the way you pull up your working string and the way you hold your base string Concentrate on your project and on every single knot Practice, Practice, practice My personal way to "success" |
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QueenVia22
Professional
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3 days, 11 hours ago by QueenVia22
@Bullfish thanks so much for the tips! I’m sure that will be helpful not only to me, but to others as well 😊
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Bullfish
Advanced
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2 days, 2 hours ago by Bullfish
Thank you @QueenVia22.I forgot to mention a little math: Thickness of basestring is basically responsible for width of knot, your individual tension on working string regulates the height of your knot. I am no fan of tying too strong, but as well not too loose. First half of knot I pull a bit more than second half. Second half of knot I pull very concentrated, so it turns out as perfect as possible. My fingers will definitely not hurt, not after a few minutes and not after hours of knotting. In case the backside of a project isn`t "important", you can just forget about weaving in unused strands. I always need clean backsides, so I use the clean back technique. My projects are bookmarks, bagtags, keychains, so the backside must be nice and clean. Probably I am too old for bracelets, I don`t wear those. It is fun making them, but at the age of 50+ I prefer other jewellery to wear 😜 |
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