Page 94 - Lindsey Philpott "The Ultimate Book of Decorative Knots"

88 THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF DECORATIVE KNOTS

several rows of work to get the sinnet looking flat
and not distorted. I have used a clipboard (handy if
you want to put a paper pattern under your work as
a reminder during the making of the sinnet) and I
have used a bulldog clip.
Some people prefer not to use anything at all
to hold the starting strands, but instead knot their
strands together with an Overhand Knot, with the
Over hand Knot and the first few passes of cord
being cut away at the finish of the piece before
mounting it – again, be reminded that you will be
doing extra work on flat sinnets if you gather the 1
cords together in a bundle instead of keeping the Form three strands of three-Strand Braid, clamp
cords flat. them together and pass right over centre…
The number of strands to make into a flat sinnet
is limited only by what you can physically manage.
Making a belt or scarf is possible, although by the
time you achieve that width you are looking more at
a process of weaving on a loom instead of making a
sinnet by hand, which is what is being shown in this
chapter. Certainly machine-made sinnet is possible
in the form of belts and bags, but we are speaking
here of handmade work, so we have not included the
various machine-made pieces. Flat sinnets can also
be made in a variety of patterns, instead of sticking
with a standard over-one, under-one pattern. Here
are a few types of flat sinnets for you to try.
2

three-strand sinnets – left over right…
The first Three-Strand Sinnet is this one from
Graumont & Hensel’s Encyclopedia, made from three
sets of Three-Strand Sinnet. This is one of the knot-
tyer’s favourite things to do with knotting: to form
one simple thing using the process itself to make
the base from which the finished object is made.
Therefore a knot-tyer will count this as a Three-
Strand Sinnet rather than a nine-strand. See also the
Turk’s Head Knot section, where a simple three-lead
Turk’s Head Knot is itself made into a three-lead
Turk’s Head Knot, but using one piece of cord. For
this sinnet we have used three separate coloured
pieces of cord so that you can see the pattern clearly
when all are used together. It produces a very
intriguing piece of decoration when made like this. 3 – and centre over left, for the basic three-
strand pattern.