Embroidery tutorial 4 -- knotted stitches

In this family of stitches you make overhand knots in your thread.  Sometimes you take a tiny stitch through the base fabric while you make the overhand knot; other times the knot is free-standing in the middle of a previous stitch.

This family includes one of my favorite stitches, the coral stitch.  I love this stitch because it makes a strong line and is very economical of thread.  I use it for curvy doodles and for a lot of drawing.

This one is called four-legged knot stitch.  Here the knot just loops around the bottom thread of the X instead of going through the fabric.  I might try this one again, but this time catching the fabric for a firmer stitch.

This next one is called double knot stitch.  Like the four-legged knot, all the knotting is simply done around the base stitch, not going through the fabric.  Like the four-legged knot, I found this one to be a bit insecure for my taste, although it does sit up quite tall from the fabric for a 3-D effect.

And of course, there are french knots, which I love, even though they aren't technically knots at all (if you tugged and pulled at a french knot it would straighten out to a plain straight stitch).  I often make little flowers at the end of my feather stitch "branches," or just mass the knots to make more solid expanses of color, as in the deviled egg below.