Tutorial - Palestrina Knot Stitch

I think it is always a good thing to learn a new stitch so this week I decided to sit down and learn Palestrina Knot Stitch and I might as well share what I learned here by way of this little tutorial.

The first step is to take a vertical bite of the fabric with your threaded needle going from top to bottom - this will be the total height of your stitch so judge according to how wide you want your seam treatment to be. This first part of the stitch creates a diagonal straight stitch.

Now you will slide your needle under this stitch from top to bottom, taking care not to pierce the thread from the initial part of your stitch - you want your needle just to slide under. Your thread on your needle will be off to one side and will stay uninvolved with this portion of the stitch.


So, now you have your diagonal straight stitch and the loop you have formed around it with that last bit. You are now going to take your needle under the diagonal straight stitch portion again, above the loop you just formed, from left to right. Your needle will go over the portion of your working thread where it emerged from the loop you made.



Give your thread a tug to position the knot and start the next stitch the same way with that initial bite from top to bottom.

There are three steps to this stitch and it may be a bit confusing at first - I was! lol But very soon you get into a rhythm and it goes along nicely.

Now here are the tips I learned the hard way that you can learn from me the easy way!

1. This stitch twists up your working thread a lot so it is a good idea to drop your needle between stitches or at least every second stitch to let your thread hang freely to untwist. Otherwise you will end up like I did with the twist in your thread loosening up and getting mangled. (Yes, you're right - I never show the pictures of the part where I mess up. Just like you won't see my fingers in any of these tutorials as long as I am working in the campground. In the fall when I am done here and have gone back to civilization and "girl hands" my fingers will be in ALL the photos!)

2. Decide where you want your knots at the beginning. I will show you a picture of this in my next post - the whole seam, that is, - and you will see I started out with my knots at the bottom of the stitch, then changed my mind and had them in the middle, then.... Well, you get the idea! Spacing of your stitches will really show up in this so might as well get things all settled in your mind before you start.

I am tempted to do this again with a larger thread to see if the detail of the knots are more visible then. They are pretty cool little knots but with the Glorianna petite silk perle you can't really see them very well.

Anyway, this is what I learned yesterday! If you decide to try it - have fun! Don't stress, it is easier than it looks.