When knotting something like a mala necklace or a string of pearls
and i have a bit of a method that seems to work for me and i get really into the
rhythm of it so i've threaded all of my beads that
i'm going to require onto my string i'm using i've already knotted a
few beads in place and but what i do um
this will differ between different people and but what seems to work well
for me is i slide one bead along my cord
and then i do an overhand knot pulling all of the existing knotted beads
through the loop so i can hold the loop wide open with my fingers there and then
to actually get the knot in the right position which is a bit which is
usually the trickiest for most people i'm using just a standard sewing needle
it doesn't have any flex to it really it's nice and strong
and it's got a nice fine point so i'm putting
my needle inside the knot and usually quite close to the bead where i want the
knot to be and i'm going to apply a bit of pressure
towards the beads that i'm knotting and also i'm
pulling the thread away from me so you can just get that really close by
doing that it's just really guiding the
knot into place now i usually find that by sliding the needle out of that
point and then pushing the knot closer with my
thumb and finger and works really well and i have found
one teaching this in workshops sometimes people get a little bit of a gap
and with using two strings together and you can just split the cords
and just help ease that knot close to the bead if necessary
so i'll repeat that a couple of times tend to find i really
get into the swing of it when i get going so
sliding my bead up wrapping around my hands
pulling the beads through and then needle inside the knot
push towards the beads and pull the cord away so sort of two actions happening
there and then just tighten that usually with
my fingers if you've got nails on your
right hand you can use your thumbnail to slide that closer to the bead as well
and if necessary pull the two threads to get it closer
so slide another one up around my hand pull the beads
through needle in push close and carry on so slide a bead
up round my hand beads through
get it a little close needle in
slide and just push up with my nail so i find with having all the beads
pre-strung and i can just keep sliding along i find that i get into a
real routine with it and it makes my knots
more consistent and actually find it really therapeutic
when i get going so there we go
and one of the way you can do it because obviously everything
you're doing is quite um intensive on your hands so it's quite
it can be quite fiddly particularly if you don't have the same ability in
your fingers so i've had quite a few people with
arthritis come on to a knotting course and there's lots of things you can do to
help so using the needle is good for guidance
and if the fact that it's quite small is
tricky you can use a longer needle or a piece of wire
and something that will just help you so i've got my bead in place there
there is a really useful tool called a bead knotter as well
so i can show you how to do this i usually demonstrate this in workshops
because it really is quite clever and again once you get into the swing of
things it gets um really close knots so i've already slid
my bead along this cord there i'm doing exactly the same as
i did before pulling my beads through and i've left a knot there
so the prong on the tool is going to replace the act
of my needle that i was using before and then this little v-shape bit at the
front here is going to help position the knot so
i'm going to get my knot close to my beads
the prong is going inside the knot as did my
needle earlier so that goes inside and i'm going to pick this up so you can
see how it's positioned so the knot is on the prong there
the rest of the cord is resting on the v-shape there and i'm going to be
pulling the thread towards me so you can see there it's made the knot
go very close up to the bead there the thread is still resting
inside that v and what happens is i get the right
angle so you can see this well and as you push this bar
up this is going to bring the v close to the point here so the point
stays static and it's the v part that's moving so as you
slide up you can see that that's bringing the knot really
really close to that gap there so it's tightening it and you then just
slide off so you're now left with just the v
in that position and that's got it just as close
as the previous knots so i'll demonstrate that again
so slide the bead up tie your basic knot
and then the prong goes inside the knot the v-shape bit is at the front there
and that's sliding along if i zoom in hopefully that will help as
well so
chord is over the v there and i'm pushing that
up to that bead there and then as i slide off
that makes the knot the prong comes out of the knot
and i can just brace the knot against the v there
and that's it so if you don't have that fine
motor skills and the dexterity in your fingers for whatever reason
and that's where this is really handy just that motion
of pushing the knot really close and then bracing against that v
shape will help you get really tight
knots