Chinese Knotting: Creative Designs that are Easy and Fun! [Hardcover]

This book was recommended to me by a friend and I purchased it quite recently because I've become interested in a wider range of knotting skills than tatting, which is my main speciality.

The book when it arrived was a lovely surprise. The introductory pages contain a synopsis of Chinese knotting history accompanied by full colour photographs of the knots in use to make practical and decorative items. The diagrams are clear enough though the knots very quickly become rather elaborate for a complete beginner learning straight from the book with no teacher to demonstrate. However patience and taking time to study the very accurate diagrams carefully will alleviate this problem. The other difficulty I encountered, particularly when reaching the stage of learning the Pan Chang Knot, was knowing how much string would be needed. No indication of this is given next the knots themselves though early on in the book it is mentioned that most can be tied with a length of three metre cord. Admittedly the amount required would depend on the thickness of the cord used, but some guidance would be helpful.

A series of projects is provided in the third part of the book, giving inspiration and instruction in using the knots in different ways. The diagrams of the projects are rather small so you would have to practice the knots themselves diligently until you can do them easily before attempting one of the projects.

However this is a very attractive book giving an interesting insight into the ancient art of Chinese knotting and I certainly recommend it for anyone interested in Chinese culture and for anyone who would like to learn Chinese knotwork.

This beautiful book gives a clear and approachable introduction to the Chinese tradition of decorative knotting. It starts with a few pages of the craft's history in China, and includes some gorgeous examples sure to inspire just about any reader. How-to comes next, with a discussion of the tools (few and inexpensive) and materials of this technique. After the basics, another section shows "compound" knots, built from repetitions and recursions of the elementary techniques. Chen ends this book with a gallery section. This presents a range of attractive and practical applications, not just lovely works in themselves but inspiration to the budding knotter.

You can approach the craft as a unique body of knowledge in itself, or as a complement to other techniques. Either way, this warrants at least a little of any crafter's time - or, in the author's case, a lifetime of fascination.

-- wiredweird

I just started into Chinese knotting. Though this book has beautiful photos/ideas, the projects are more advanced so the instruction photos/directions were insufficient for me to grasp how to create the beautiful projects. If you're a novice, look elsewhere. I returned mine. Gave it 4 stars just because it isn't for everyone.