Page 61 - Lydia Chen - The Complete Book of Chinese Knotting

04 Pan Chang Knot (49-64) rp08 6/2/08 12:13 PM Page 58

Round Brocade Knot

The round brocade knot was developed to rectify the shortcomings of the cloverleaf
knot with multiple outer loops, which has a loose body knot and a lack of variety in
its modifications. As with the pan chang knot, the basic round brocade knot uses the
pull and wrap technique. Though the pan chang knot is squarish and the round
brocade knot round, as its name suggests, both knots are highly versatile and vari-
able. The different types of modified round brocade knots are shown below.

Modified Knots

Increasing the Number of Outer Loops
In theory, an infinite number of outer loops can be added to the round brocade knot.
However, when there are too many outer loops, the central hole tends to become too
big and the knot body too loose. This is fine if you want this kind of modified knot
to take the form of a big decorative ring. To make the central hole smaller, instead of
looping every second ear loop, you can loop every third or fourth. But in this case, it
would become a fairly thick knot.

Round brocade knot with
multiple outer loops.

Changing the Knotting Sequence of Ear Loops
The round brocade knot can be tied with both compound and overlapped outer
loops. Since the number of outer loops can be increased indefinitely, the number of
variations is also large.

Round brocade knot with Round brocade knot with
compound outer loops overlapped outer loops
(see page 59). (see page 61).

Modified Knot Bodies

Varying the Ear Loops
The basic knotting technique of the round brocade knot can be changed by extend-
ing the ear loops, thereby increasing the number of pulls and wraps.

Compound round brocade
knot (see page 63).

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