Jekyll2022-08-06T20:14:09-07:00http://localhost:4000/feed/tag/lydia-chen.xmlKnotty Notions ][ Lydia chenA decorative knotting blog.Carol WangHorizontal Plafond (横藻井結)2010-10-02T00:00:00-07:002010-10-02T00:00:00-07:00http://localhost:4000/plafond/horizontal-plafond<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/gallery/plafond-horizontal-big.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/gallery/plafond-horizontal.jpg" alt="horizontal plafond" align="right" /></a>In <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/complete-ck3.html">Chinese Knotting 3</a>, two variations of the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/">plafond knot</a> are explored, the first is the <strong>horizontal plafond knot</strong> 横藻井結 (橫藻井结) [héng zǎo jǐng jié]. In this configuration, looking somewhat like a cross between the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/sauvastika/">sauvastika</a> and the plafond knot, I wondered what manipulations would work. The side loops, if too short would pull into the body of the knot and the whole thing would fall apart, but the top loop can’t just pull in. With the top loop shortened, it looks like this:<br clear="right" />
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<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/gallery/plafond-horizontal-top-big.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/gallery/plafond-horizontal-top.jpg" alt="horizontal plafond with shortened top loop" align="center" /></a></p>
<p>I suspect it’s not destined to become my favourite knot…</p>Carol WangIn Chinese Knotting 3, two variations of the plafond knot are explored, the first is the horizontal plafond knot 横藻井結 (橫藻井结) [héng zǎo jǐng jié]. In this configuration, looking somewhat like a cross between the sauvastika and the plafond knot, I wondered what manipulations would work. The side loops, if too short would pull into the body of the knot and the whole thing would fall apart, but the top loop can’t just pull in. With the top loop shortened, it looks like this:Book Review: Chinese Knotting by Lydia Chen2010-02-05T00:00:00-08:002010-02-05T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/book-review-chinese-knotting-by-lydia-chen<p><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/lydia1.jpg" align="left" alt="cover of the Echo edition of Lydia Chen Chinese Knotting" height="254" /><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/Lydia-Chen-Red.jpg" align="right" alt="cover of the current Tuttle edition of Lydia Chen Chinese Knotting" />In print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.
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<p>First was the original (Traditional) Chinese edition published in Taiwan (the cover of the original Chinese edition is identical in illustration to the English edition pictured at left but for the title rendered in Chinese text):<br />
<strong>中國結</strong><br />
Author: 陳夏生 (Chen Hsia-Sheng, chén xià shēng)<br />
ISBN: ??<br />
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 edition (January, 1981)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches</p>
<p>Soon followed by an English edition also published in Taiwan and distributed by Tuttle (<em>see left</em>):<br />
<strong>Chinese Knotting</strong><br />
Author: Lydia Chen<br />
ISBN: 0-8048-1389-2<br />
Hardcover: 116 pages<br />
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 English edition (January, 1982)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches</p>
<p>Somewhere in the middle here was a softcover Tuttle edition with a hot pink cover. Perhaps someone who owns this edition will email me a scan of the cover?</p>
<p>Most recently, Tuttle published a second English edition with reworked cover (<em>see right</em>) and a shiny new subtitle:
<strong>Chinese Knotting: Creative Designs that are Easy and Fun!</strong><br />
Author: Lydia Chen<br />
ISBN-10: 0804833990<br />
ISBN-13: 978-0804833998<br />
Hardcover: 116 pages<br />
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing; 2 edition (August 15, 2003)<br />
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches</p>
<p>So that’s the publishing information. The publisher’s forward is different from my original English edition to the latest Tuttle edition, but that’s pretty much it as the 70’s style fashions pictured within with attest.</p>
<p>The book begins with some history of the craft (knot tying in an Asian context) and of the book (gathering information on a craft that at the time was rapidly disappearing). A modest gallery of the finished knotworks continues the introduction, but as the book is more an instruction book than a project book, it is not front-loaded with colour photos of the projects you’ll find in the back. An overview of the knot tying process and materials finishes out the fore-matter before we dig into the knots themselves.</p>
<p>The <a href="/translation/CK1-knot-list">list of knots in Chinese Knotting</a> along with translation notes are found in the <a href="/translation/CK1-knot-list">previous post</a>. From <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/coin/">double coin</a> to <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/square/">flat</a> are basic knots, the rest are compound knots.</p>
<p>Ms. Chen sees the knots in a very architectural way or maybe I mean <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draughtsman">draughtsman</a>-like. The knots are often presented in an exploded layout fashion and where possible the instructions are just a step by step revealing of this. Thus her instructions for the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/overhand/ceiling/">plafond knot</a> has no flipping or inversion as others have. But where it is important, as in the case of the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/">good luck knot</a>, process steps are included.</p>
<p>This style may not be to your liking. Certain knots are easier to learn from a process versus layout point of view, but no one can deny the wonderful and spectacular things her very precise minds-eye has created. In any case, that’s why we have more than one book on the same topic, right? To add different perspectives when necessary for our own learning processes.</p>
<p>It would be difficult to over-estimate the impact the original Chinese edition or the translated English edition of this book had on Chinese knotting in Taiwan, Mainland China, Singapore, etc or decorative knotting in the English-speaking world and, indeed, traditional Asian knotting elsewhere. It would be an interesting sociological (?) project to try to trace that…</p>
<p>The book ends with an interesting collection of small, generally personal fashion related, projects. Examples of these can be seen on the various editions of the cover.</p>
<p>Forgot I was writing a “review” here. 8) This is an essential book for any collection of knot books (even if you’re only into practical knots because, y’know, you need to expand your horizons. 8) It is also an essential work for anyone studying Chinese culture, Chinese art, or decorative arts in general.</p>
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<iframe src="http://rcm-de.amazon.de/e/cm?t=skateorg0c&o=3&p=8&l=as1&asins=0804833990&md=1M6ABJKN5YT3337HVA02&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<iframe src="http://rcm-fr.amazon.fr/e/cm?t=skateorg01&o=8&p=8&l=as1&asins=0804833990&md=0V7HTNAW9BB7KPZWWWG2&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Carol WangIn print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.Translating Lydia Chen’s Chinese Knotting Book One Knot List2010-01-12T00:00:00-08:002010-01-12T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/books/translating-lydia-chens-chinese-knotting-book-one-knot-list<p>The easiest way for me to enter Chinese text is by typing English text
and getting something to translate it for me. Generally speaking this
does 60% of the job. Then there are the characters that are more
difficult to translate, so I need to enter them directly. For this
task I like to write the characters into a system that does Chinese
handwriting recognition. For this job I used the free <a href="http://www.sonicomobile.com/itranslate.html">iTranslate iPhone
app</a> and the <a href="http://www.nciku.com/">nciku dictionary</a>.
I used the iTranslate app, mostly because I was out, but it had the
added advantage of quickly swapping the Chinese and English back and
forth from the translate/translated windows for refinement of the
desired characters. Also, unlike the other translation apps on my
phone, iTranslate allowed me to get the data <strong>out</strong> (via
email in this case). Apparently iTranslate is “powered by Google” and
indeed once I got home I also used <a href="http://translate.google.com/#en|zh-TW|">Google Translate</a>
with largely the same results although there is no handwriting
recognition involved there.
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<p><strong>nciku</strong> is far and away the better word and phrase
translator, plus it has more data entry methods (handwriting, pinyin).
In Google’s favour is it’s ability to deal with greater volume
(sentences, paragraphs, whole web pages).</p>
<p>So, sometimes after I’ve input the characters, I’ll retranslate the
Chinese back to English to see what comes out. Sometimes it’s
something that makes sense (auspicious vs good luck), sometimes it’s
the word you expect except that you don’t get that when translating in
the other direction (button vs Buttons), and sometimes it’s just wacky
(pan chang vs plate length).</p>
<p>The extra added difficulty to this project is that I was translating
the Chinese from the handwritten (fast script with a paintbrush)
Chinese in the English version of the book. The Chinese editions of
<a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen2">Chinese Knotting
2</a> and <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">Chinese
Knotting 3</a> have the text nicely typeset on the top of the page in
addition to the pretty, but difficult to read, script and that’s most
likely the case with <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen1">the first volume</a>
as well.</p>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr><th>English Name</th>
<th>Written Chinese</th>
<th>Pinyin</th>
<th>Translation Notes</th>
</tr>
<tr><td>double coin knot</td>
<td>雙錢</td>
<td>shuāng qián</td>
<td>double money vs double coin (雙幣)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>double connection knot</td>
<td>雙聯</td>
<td>shuāng lián</td>
<td>retranslates as Double</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauvastika">sauvastika</a> knot</td>
<td>卍字</td>
<td>wàn zì</td>
<td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika">swastika</a> word</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>cross knot</td>
<td>十字</td>
<td>shí zì</td>
<td>ten word</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>cloverleaf knot</td>
<td>酢漿草</td>
<td>zuòjiāngcǎo</td>
<td> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalis_corniculata">oxalis corniculata</a>
retranslates as shamrock vs clover (三葉草)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>good luck knot</td>
<td>吉祥</td>
<td>jí xiáng</td>
<td>auspicious</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>button knot</td>
<td>鈕扣</td>
<td>niǔ kòu</td>
<td>retranslates as Buttons vs button(按鈕)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>pan chang knot</td>
<td>盤長</td>
<td>pán cháng</td>
<td>retranslates as plate length </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>round brocade knot</td>
<td>團錦</td>
<td>tuán jǐn</td>
<td>retranslates (iTranslate) as mission jin</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>plafond knot</td>
<td>藻井</td>
<td>zǎo jǐng</td>
<td>surprising straightforward bilateral translation</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>flat knot</td>
<td>平結</td>
<td>píng jié</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>ju i knot</td>
<td>如意</td>
<td>rúyì</td>
<td>retranslates as "be satisfied"</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>brocade ball knot</td>
<td>繡球</td>
<td>xiù qiú</td>
<td>embroidery ball (remove the flower (花) in the middle)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>longevity knot</td>
<td>壽</td>
<td>shòu</td>
<td>longevity (長壽)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>double happiness knot</td>
<td>雙喜</td>
<td>shuāng xǐ</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr><td>dragon knot</td>
<td>龍</td>
<td>dragon</td>
<td>lóng</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>dragonfly knot</td>
<td>蜻蜓</td>
<td>qīng tíng</td>
<td>dragonfly (蝴蝶昆蟲)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>butterfly knot</td>
<td>蝴蝶</td>
<td>hú dié</td>
<td>google gives the oddest translation to “butterfly”: 輕便鐵路蝴蝶站</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>long pan chang</td>
<td>長盤長</td>
<td>cháng pán cháng</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>stone chime knot</td>
<td>磬</td>
<td>qìng</td>
<td>stone chime (石磬), even by itself (磬) is stone chime</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top"><td>double diamond knot</td>
<td>方勝</td>
<td>fāng shèng</td>
<td>方=square
retranslates (iTranslate) as Fang sheng
勝=win, defeat, be better than, superb
形 = shape
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>crane knot</td>
<td>仙鶴</td>
<td>xiān hè</td>
<td>crane (鶴)
retranslated by nciku as a mythological immortal bird</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>phoenix knot</td>
<td>鳳</td>
<td>fèng</td>
<td>phoenix (鳳凰)</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>fish knot</td>
<td>鯉魚</td>
<td>lǐyú</td>
<td>fish = 魚 the written Chinese is “carp”</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>ten accord knot</td>
<td>十全</td>
<td>shí quán</td>
<td>nciku retranslates as perfect</td>
</tr>
</table>Carol WangThe easiest way for me to enter Chinese text is by typing English text and getting something to translate it for me. Generally speaking this does 60% of the job. Then there are the characters that are more difficult to translate, so I need to enter them directly. For this task I like to write the characters into a system that does Chinese handwriting recognition. For this job I used the free iTranslate iPhone app and the nciku dictionary. I used the iTranslate app, mostly because I was out, but it had the added advantage of quickly swapping the Chinese and English back and forth from the translate/translated windows for refinement of the desired characters. Also, unlike the other translation apps on my phone, iTranslate allowed me to get the data out (via email in this case). Apparently iTranslate is “powered by Google” and indeed once I got home I also used Google Translate with largely the same results although there is no handwriting recognition involved there.Good Luck Variations 9b: Reverse Corner Counter Crown2009-02-04T00:00:00-08:002009-02-04T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-9b-reverse-corner-counter-crown<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcc/4-luck-reverse-corner-counter-crown.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcc/4-luck-rccc-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck reverse corner counter crown variant" align="left" /></a>
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<p>If you take your <a href="/gluck/reverse-corner-crown">4 sided good luck reverse corner crown variant</a> and instead of crowning first in the counter clockwise direction (this one started with crowning in the clockwise direction) then flip it over, and crown the corner loops (clockwise in this case). The result is symmetric with the front and back looking the same. Of course, substantially the same result can be obtained by crowning in the counter clockwise direction both times instead.</p>
<p>This is a variant, not in <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">the book</a> (and arrived at by accident), but I think worthy and aesthetically pleasing.<br clear="all" /></p>
<p>Books mentioned in this post:</p>
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<iframe src="http://rcm-de.amazon.de/e/cm?t=skateorg0c&o=3&p=8&l=as1&asins=0804836795&md=1M6ABJKN5YT3337HVA02&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Carol WangGood Luck Variations 9: Reverse Corner Crown2009-02-03T00:00:00-08:002009-02-03T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-9-reverse-corner-crown<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcc/4-luck-reverse-corner-crown.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcc/4-luck-rcc-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck reverse corner crown variant" align="left" /></a> <big><big>小耳翼疊壓吉祥結E型</big></big>
<em>little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot E type/build/model</em>
Type 5 Good Luck Knot with Small Outer Loops
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<p>Take your standard first step for a good luck knot (counter clockwise in this case), flip it over, then crown the corner loops (clockwise in this case). The result is symmetric with the front and back looking the same.</p>
<p>I still haven’t found my copy of Lydia Chen’s <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3e">The Complete Book of Chinese Knotting</a> (English version of <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">Chinese Knotting 3</a> yet, but I got it out of the local library <a href="http://www.bpl.bc.ca/">local library</a> so I can give you the illuminating official English translation of the name (Type 5 Good Luck Knot with Small Outer Loops). I’ll go back and add to the previous posts their appropriate versions as well.</p>
<p>Books mentioned in this post:</p>
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<iframe src="http://rcm-de.amazon.de/e/cm?t=skateorg0c&o=3&p=8&l=as1&asins=0804836795&md=1M6ABJKN5YT3337HVA02&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>Carol Wang小耳翼疊壓吉祥結E型 little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot E type/build/model Type 5 Good Luck Knot with Small Outer LoopsGood Luck Variations 8: Corner Crown2009-01-29T00:00:00-08:002009-01-29T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-8-corner-crown<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cc/4-luck-corner-crown.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cc/4-luck-cc-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck corner crown variant" align="left" /></a><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cc/4-luck-cc-back.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cc/4-luck-cc-back-stamp.jpg" alt="back of 4 sided good luck corner crown variant" align="right" /></a>
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<p><big><big>小耳翼疊壓吉祥結D型</big></big>
<em>little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot D type/build/model</em></p>
<p>The 8th variation I’m posting about, <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">Lydia’s</a> 6th variation (numbered 7, but the first one was a straightforward 6 sided good luck knot, not really an earth shattering variation). If I had thought about it before I started quick-posting this bunch of knots, I would have put this one third because it’s the most basic significant variation that is interesting (I’ll show you the <a href="/gluck/corner-counter-crown">uninteresting ones</a> later 8).</p>
<p>The <strong>corner crown</strong> variation is achieved (as the name would suggest) by extending the corners and crowning them, first one direction then the other (in this case counter clockwise then clockwise, but clockwise then counter would work too). No twisting, or flipping needed, yet.</p>Carol WangGood Luck Variations 7: Reverse Corner Split2009-01-29T00:00:00-08:002009-01-29T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-7-reverse-corner-split<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcs/4-luck-reverse-corner-split.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcs/4-luck-rcs-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided reverse corner split good luck variant" align="left" /></a><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcs/4-luck-rcs-back.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4rcs/4-luck-rcs-back-stamp.jpg" alt="back of 4 sided reverse corner split good luck variant" align="right" /></a> The <strong>reverse</strong> comes first, after completing the first crown, flip your knot over. Then extend your <strong>corners</strong>. Finally, crown the corners, and <strong>split</strong> the opposite loop.</p>
<p><big><big>小耳翼疊壓吉祥結C型</big></big>
<em>little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot C type/build/model</em></p>Carol WangThe reverse comes first, after completing the first crown, flip your knot over. Then extend your corners. Finally, crown the corners, and split the opposite loop. 小耳翼疊壓吉祥結C型 little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot C type/build/modelGood Luck Variations 5: Corner Split2009-01-26T00:00:00-08:002009-01-26T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-5-corner-split<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cs/4-luck-corner-split.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cs/4-luck-corner-split-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck knot corner split variation" align="left" /></a><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cs/4-luck-corner-split-back.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4cs/4-luck-corner-split-back-stamp.jpg" alt="back of 4 sided good luck knot corner split variation" align="right" /></a> Happy <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/2009YearOfTheOx">moo</a> year! It’s the year of the Earth Ox (a couple of years ago, we had to explain to our Chinese teacher why it was not the year of the “cow” or for that matter “sheep” (vs “goat”), “bunny” (vs “rabbit” or “hare”), “mouse” (vs “rat”), or “chicken” (vs “rooster”). 8)
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<p>Next up, what I’m calling the <strong>corner split</strong> variation on the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/">good luck knot</a>. A first glance says that <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">Ms. Chen</a> has, in Chinese, named it something about <em>little ear, blah, blah, variation A</em>. A less casual and more labour intensive translation attempt follows. Here’s the original and a word for character translation (note that a character by character translation misses a lot of nuances, but it’s the best I can do).</p>
<p><big><big>小耳翼疊壓吉祥結A型</big></big>
<em>little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot A type/build/model</em></p>
<p>In any case, I am confident that the <em>little ear wing</em> refers to what I’m calling the <a href="/gluck/basics"><em>corner ears</em></a>. So, this variation does the first crowning step for the good luck knot, then extends what would be the corner ears and crowns those instead then splitting the loop directly opposite. This is an asymmetrical move and as you might expect, the back (<em>see right</em>) doesn’t match the front.</p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong> when first posted 2 days ago, I named this knot the <strong>corner cross</strong> variation. I had tied and scanned this bunch of good luck variations years ago and was doing a quick matching of knot to name and method. Today while tying some new knots (and matching old front and back scans together, since they were before I got systematic about the naming) I realized that I’d made a mistake. There was an extra splitting move in this knot. I could probably have left the name as is, but it’s this lack of precision that caused the trouble in the first place, right? So, I’m fixing things…</p>Carol WangHappy moo year! It’s the year of the Earth Ox (a couple of years ago, we had to explain to our Chinese teacher why it was not the year of the “cow” or for that matter “sheep” (vs “goat”), “bunny” (vs “rabbit” or “hare”), “mouse” (vs “rat”), or “chicken” (vs “rooster”). 8)Good Luck Variations 4: Flowery Inset Ears2009-01-25T00:00:00-08:002009-01-25T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-4-flowery-inset-ears<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4ie/4-luck-inset-flower.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4ie/4-luck-inset-flower-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck knot with inset flower ears" align="left" /></a> In <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">the book</a> as a variation, so I tied it, the 4-flower inset ears could be any knot. Simply tie 3 in your cord and then lay out your <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/">good luck knot</a> with the knots at the end of the cross shape and tie as as you would the <a href="/gluck/inset-ear">good luck with inset ear</a>. Ms. Chen stops there, but why would you want to do that? When done, your cord ends hang in the 4th side ear. So, tie another flower (or whatever you’ve decided to put in your ears 8).
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<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4ie/bad-flowery-luck.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4ie/bad-flowery-luck-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck knot with inset flower ears with mistake" align="right" /></a> I don’t know how much you can learn from my mistakes, but the above knot was not my first attempt. Here’s one with a wrong tuck. On further inspection, I might be able to fix it, but it certainly would have been much easier to try if I had discovered the error before fully tightening the knot!<br clear="all" /></p>
<p>Books mentioned in this post:</p>
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<p>What d’ya think guys? Too much? Useful?</p>Carol WangIn the book as a variation, so I tied it, the 4-flower inset ears could be any knot. Simply tie 3 in your cord and then lay out your good luck knot with the knots at the end of the cross shape and tie as as you would the good luck with inset ear. Ms. Chen stops there, but why would you want to do that? When done, your cord ends hang in the 4th side ear. So, tie another flower (or whatever you’ve decided to put in your ears 8).Good Luck Variations 3: Inset Ears2009-01-24T00:00:00-08:002009-01-24T00:00:00-08:00http://localhost:4000/good%20luck/good-luck-variations-3-inset-ears<p><a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4ie/4-luck-inset-ears.jpg" title="bigger"><img src="http://www.chineseknotting.org/luck/howto4ie/4-luck-inset-ears-stamp.jpg" alt="4 sided good luck knot with inset ears variant" align="left" /></a>
I have this vague recollection that Lydia Chen hadn’t really named the
variants in her <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3">Chinese Knotting 3
book</a>, they were more like “variant A” and “variant B”. Whether
numbered or named with poetry, I just wanted to see what she was
naming things and check if it was different in the <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen3e">English
version</a>, but where was my book? Not on the shelf where it’s
supposed to be with <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen1">one</a> and <a href="http://www.chineseknotting.org/book/#chen2">two</a>. Not in the
bedroom where I might have piled it upon unpacking from the last trip.
Not in the living room, not here, not there, still not here, etc. I
must have wasted most of a day looking without success.
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<p>I take the
Chinese version which is right where it belongs and look at the
characters. I do pattern matching and determine that it’s named
“complex character 1, complex character2, Good Luck Knot”. Now I’ve
got Chinese-English dictionaries, I could have gone to look it up, but
<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_all_you_have_is_a_hammer,_everything_looks_like_a_nail">when
you have a hammer</a>… So I decide to look it up online. A check
of my bookmarks and a little Googling brings me back to <a href="http://www.nciku.com/">nciku</a> an online Chinese-English
dictionary with a little widget that allows you to write the character
you want to look up with your mouse. I had found it before, but
somehow lost (?) the bookmark. It’s so much easier just write the
character than it is to count strokes, hunt for radical, pattern
match, pattern match, hope you counted the number of strokes
correctly, pattern match. I write the characters and get a
translation: complex ears. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p><big><big>複翼吉祥結</big></big>
<em>complex wing lucky knot</em></p>
<p>Okay, so I can’t find my English copy. I could always check when I’m at the bookstore… except that there are no copies in <a href="http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=506797">the GRVD</a> in the <a href="http://www.chapters.ca/">big chain</a>. <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>The <em>inset ears</em> variant of the good luck knot starts out the same as the basic, but instead of just folding over, take the arm through the loop at the other side. Unlike some of the later variants, this one is symmetric front and back like a good Chinese knot.</p>Carol WangI have this vague recollection that Lydia Chen hadn’t really named the variants in her Chinese Knotting 3 book, they were more like “variant A” and “variant B”. Whether numbered or named with poetry, I just wanted to see what she was naming things and check if it was different in the English version, but where was my book? Not on the shelf where it’s supposed to be with one and two. Not in the bedroom where I might have piled it upon unpacking from the last trip. Not in the living room, not here, not there, still not here, etc. I must have wasted most of a day looking without success.