With hand stitching and boro making a comeback in the slow stitching movement, it is good to relook the tricks of the trade as they were used a couple of hundred years ago. One of these techniques is the Widow’s knot. The prime purpose of the widows knot is to keep the thread in the needle, once you start to work and therefore not worry about to keep the thread in the needle’s eye while you work.
To sew by hand can be one of the delights in our day. A simple frustration like to pull the thread from the needle while you sew, as a result can frustrate you and steal your peace.
The widow’s knot is used to when working with silk, as the thread can easily slip from the eye of the needle due to the jumpyness of the thread. I have for instance, taught it to children that learns to thread the needle, and to a couple of friends whose eyes have deteriorated where they too, battle to thread the needle. It also works beautifully with cotton thread as well.
How to make the widows’ knot
You now have needle with thread that won’t slip out. You can, as a result, fully concentrate to make beautiful stitches.
Contact me to book a class. I teach classes from beginner to advanced techniques.
This post is part of Lenad Quilting and was written by Danél Muller, Pretoria, South Africa, 2020
