Carrick bend sailor’s knot hand embroidery pattern

Easy · 3 colors · 3 kinds of stitch

Carrick bend sailor’s knot: preview of the stitched design

A carrick bend is a sailor’s knot of two ropes, here one navy and one red, each bent into a round loop and laid through the other. The left rope is navy: its two ends run in from the upper left and the lower left, cross, and close in a round loop on the right. The right rope is red and mirrors it, with its ends at the right and its loop on the left. Each rope is a band with stem stitch edges and a middle line of chain stitch in its own color. A gold whipping of satin stitch binds each of the four rope ends.

Size and details

Easy. Stem stitch and chain stitch, with some short satin stitches.

3 colors of floss and 3 kinds of stitch:

The stitched size and the widest satin stitch, by hoop
Hoop	Inches	Centimeters	Satin stitch up to
3 in (8 cm)	1.7 × 0.9 in	4.3 × 2.3 cm	1/16 in (1.6 mm)
4 in (10 cm)	2.6 × 1.4 in	6.6 × 3.6 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
5 in (13 cm)	3.5 × 1.9 in	8.9 × 4.8 cm	1/8 in (3 mm)
6 in (15 cm)	4.3 × 2.4 in	10.9 × 6.1 cm	3/16 in (5 mm)
8 in (20 cm)	6.1 × 3.3 in	15.5 × 8.4 cm	1/4 in (6 mm)

The pattern is drawn inside a circle about half an inch (1.3 cm) smaller all around than the hoop.

What you need

DMC 336 Navy BlueLeft rope and navy middle line of the rope
DMC 304 Medium RedRed middle line of the rope and right rope
DMC 3852 Very Dark StrawWhippings on the rope ends

The floss is six-strand cotton; the stitch guide says how many strands to use. You also need a hoop, an embroidery needle (a size 7 to 9 suits two or three strands) and plain cotton or linen fabric. To frame the piece in its hoop, cut a square 3 inches (8 cm) wider than the hoop: a 9 inch (23 cm) square for a 6 inch hoop.

Stitch guide

Stem stitch 2 or 3 strandsLeft rope, right rope
Chain stitch 2 or 3 strandsMiddle line of the rope
Satin stitch 2 strandsWhippings on the rope ends

Getting it onto your fabric

The PDF holds the pattern twice at actual size: once as drawn, and once mirrored for an iron-on transfer pen. Print it at 100% with scaling off and check the one-inch square (25.4 mm) with a ruler before you trace. How to transfer a pattern explains tracing, carbon paper and the other ways. The files are under Downloads.