gh at the tip of the petal, and the stitch is complete
and ready to be fastened off.

[Illustration: THE WORKING OF F ON KNOT-STITCH SAMPLER.]

The leaves of these flowers consist simply of two bullion stitches. The
bullion knots at the side of the central stalk are curled by taking up
in the first instance only the smallest piece of the stuff.

[Sidenote: TO WORK G.]

To work FRENCH KNOTS (G), having brought out your needle at the point
where the knot is to be, hold the thread under your thumb, and, letting
it lie to the right, put your needle under the stretched part of it.
Turn the needle so as to twist the thread once round it. That done, put
the needle in again about where it came out, draw it through from the
back, and bring it out where the next knot is to be.

For large knots use two or more threads of silk, and do not twist them
more than once. With a single thread you may twist twice, but the result
of twisting three or four times is never happy.

[Illustration: THE WORKING OF G ON KNOT-STITCH SAMPLER.]

The use of knots is shown to perfection in Illustration 24. Worked there
in white silk floss upon a dark purple ground, they are quite pearly in
appearance, whether in rows between the border lines, or scattered over
the ground. They are most useful in holding the design together, giving
it mass, and go admirably with chain-stitching, to which, when close
together, they have at first sight some likeness. A single line of knots
may almost be mistaken for chain-stitch; but of themselves they do not
make a good outline, lacking firmness. A happier use of them is to
fringe an outline, as for example in the peacock's tail on page 38; but
this kind of thing must be used with reticence, or it results in a
rather rococo effect. Good use is sometimes made of knots to pearl the
inner edge of a pattern worked in outline, or to pattern the ornament
(instead of the ground) all over. Differencing of this kind may be an
afterthought--and a happy one--affording as it does a ready means of
qualifying the colour or texture of ground, or pattern, or part of
either, which may not have worked out quite to the embroiderer's liking.

The obvious fitness of knots to represent the stamens of flowers is
exemplified in Illustration 93. Worked close together, they represent
admirably the eyes of composite flowers, as on the sampler; they give,
again, valuable variety of texture to the crest of the stork in
Illustration 85.

The