Bullion Knot: How to Do It Step by Step

Bullion Knot is a hand embroidery stitch that makes coiled raised bar. Makers reach for it for roses, caterpillars, raised texture. It is rated experienced here, so it helps to be comfortable with the basic stitches first and to practice on a swatch before a project.

1. Bring the needle up at point A. 2. Insert it at point B, the length of the knot away, and bring the tip back up at A without pulling it through. 3. Wrap the thread around the needle tip enough times to equal the distance from A to B. 4. Hold the wraps with your thumb and pull the needle and thread through the wraps. 5. Pull the thread so the coil lies flat between A and B, then insert the needle at B. Work slowly for the first few repeats, keep your tension even, and check the result against the steps before continuing across a whole row or motif.

The most common problems are: too few wraps, so the coil stretches; using a needle with a wide eye, which snags the wraps; wraps packed unevenly. Most are easy to spot if you pause after a few repeats and compare your work with the steps. Good light helps a great deal, especially with dark yarn or thread.

Stitches closely related to bullion knot include French Knot, Colonial Knot. Learning them together makes patterns easier to read, because many designs switch between related stitches to change texture, height or line. Each has its own step-by-step page in the stitch dictionary.