Hello CarlaJ! Like you, I can't make a French knot. I'm an experienced stitcher and no matter how many times I tried, how hard I focused and concentrated, or how many video tutorials I watched, they never turned out right. I gave up on them many years ago.

What I do is substitute a bead (such as Mill Hill's seed beads and petite seed beads, which are available in a wide variety of colors), or substitute a Smyrna cross stitch (stitch the "x" of a cross stitch and then a "+" on top of the "x"). Either of these will give the little bit of dimension/texture that a French knot does.

Mary thanks for the info about the different way to do a French knot.

I think i will try the Mill bead the next time I have an occasion to do French knots. I have done French knots and, truthfully, they weren't the prettiest of stitching. Just hoped no one looked too close!! Pam

This is the way I do mine. https://sublimestitching.com/pages/how-to-french-knot A little practice and they are no big deal but I'm sure the beads are also a good option I have just never tried it. Good luck either way I am sure it will be beautiful.

If I get a pattern with French knots ( been there, done that) I think I’ll do beads as a replacement; if nothing else for the conformity of the bead size.
(I've been using a lot of Semi- colons (;) in my ECS ‘chats’ lately...wonder what Freud would say.....hmmmm...that I’m a half a dot short of a full colon (:)...)🤨

Thanks to my Grandma, who taught me to embroider at age 8, and made me do French Knots every day for a week until I could practically do them in my sleep, I have no problem doing them and actually like doing them, but it's been a while. The secret to a good French Knot is to keep your thread taut as you wrap your needle and push it back down through to the wrong side of the fabric and secure the thread. It takes two hands to do this, one guiding the needle and the other one keeping that thread tight. The most important thing is that tension on the thread. A loose thread will not make a good French Knot. And you have to secure it on the backside or it will just pull out. I do this by running my needle under several surrounding stitches, and looping my thread around one or more stitches to anchor it and then under several more stitches. It won't be pretty on the backside, but it should hold. If you have to make a tiny knot on the backside, do it. It won't show under the French Knots. So says me! 😲 Good luck!!

Mary, excellent idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

Carla,

Me Too! My french knots usually end up squirrely so I switched to doing a colonial knot. Basically the same as a french knot as far as I'm concerned and it's pretty fool proof. You can probably google and see how to do one. I wouldn't be good at explaining but give it a try. Good luck!

Deb, I just found instructions on how to make the colonial knot and they had pictures for left-handed people, too, so I'm going to practice those.

I have a set of 4 Seasons samplers that I stitched many years ago, but never mounted and framed. One of the set has an apple tree that is supposed to have French knots for the apples. Think I'll use your idea, Mary, and use seed beads. I can do very good French knots (thanks to my mom, who did beautiful French knots and Lazy Daisies), but they are a pain in counted cross stitch!