Knotty Notions - page 39 of 41

I was reviewing my previous post and noticing how rounded the 6 pointed stellar knot looked when I remembered it being way more angular. Looking at the actual knot revealed that there is a mild sidedness to the stellar knot.

There I was thinking disgruntled thoughts about this other site where I couldn’t find any “About Us” type information. “Always tell people who you are, fool!” I thought, “It’s one of the first web rules along with ‘Always tell readers where they are, don’t expect them to know.’” But then I realized I hadn’t made an “About Us” page for this site. Since I was starting from personal thoughts and starting by telling, effectively, my knotty friends who presumably (assuming, bad!) know who I am… Well, enough self-justification, time to fix the problem. Also, in retrospect, my slogan is unhelpful in letting people know where they are… but one thing at a time.

I’m trying to start a new tradition/product line. So far I’ve almost carried through the tradition, but nothing on the product line front. What I’d like to be doing is designing a new festive tree ornament kit each year. If you look over at the shop site you’ll notice a distinct lack of ornament kits. It’s all in the timing and that, since I am the Queen of Procrastination, does not work in my favour.

Since I can pretty much tie flower knots in my sleep, plus their interlacement points are minimal (compared to, say, the bao knot or the mystic knot) they were a no brainer for a quick experiment in wire. Obviously, I started with the 3 petal flower first shown in Wire Basics done with a pre-tied cord knot as a template. Why, you might wonder, would such a simple knot need a template? Couldn’t you freehand it? The answer is: maybe. The problem is that wire is very springy and requires at least 2 hands to bend in a controlled way. It’s just much easier to do with a template. Perhaps with experience and repetition you may no longer need a template, but to start… The ends were just slighly overlapped and left. They seem happy to stay that way.