Chinese Knotting: The Good Luck Knot


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good luck knotGeneralities

Tied on the bight, the good luck knot is somewhat fragile (eg. don't put one in your pocket and expect it to come out unscathed), but used where appropriate and reinforced when necessary, it is extremely decorative and easily varied with nice effects.

The good luck knot is different from most of the other knots with multiple ears in that there are double the number of ears than the size number of the knot would indicate. The 4-knot has 8 ears, 4 short and 4 long. But, of course, ear size is subject to the whims of the knot tyer so basing terminology on that would be foolish. However, notice that what is traditionally the "long" ear comes out of the side of the knot and the "short" ear wraps around the corner of the knot. Just because I can't leave well enough alone, I will point out that when you have a bigger knot (with more sides) the corner and sides get more diffcult to distinguish, but in this instance I doubt that mathematical terminology, like "verticies" and "edges", is going to help.


Nomenclature

Chen 1: Good Luck Knot (吉祥結) [jí xiáng jié] (4)
Ashley: #1097 a three part crown in the bight (½ 3), #1105 a four-looped knot with a double square crown (4), #1106 extend the three "snug loops or bights" to give a seven looped knot (4)
Maedeup: The Art of Traditional Korean Knots by Kim Hee-jin: 동심결매듭 [Dongsimyeol Maedeup] One Mind Knot.
Ruri-Ishikawa: 菊結び [きくむすび, kiku musubi] Chrysanthemum Knot.

The knot in question was reportedly a "nameless orphan" until Ms. Chen named it the Good Luck Knot. The Chinese name, 吉祥結, machine translates as "auspicious knot", so apparently it was a nameless orphan in Chinese as well as English (if we don't want to count "a four-looped knot with a double square crown" as a proper name 8). The Japanese and Korean names (chrysanthemum and one mind, respectively) do not appear to be varations on the good luck theme, so one is tempted to assume that it was named in those disciplines prior to its naming in Chinese. Perhaps its identification in Chinese prior to Ms. Chen's christening was of the four-looped knot with... variety. 8)


Similar Knots


How To

4. square good luck knot

General Tips

Good Luck Knot

Step by step instructions for the square (4) good luck knot.

Variations and Expansions

I've been blogging about my own experiments with variations on the good luck knot. Eventually, I will make step-by-step how tos for each as would be appropriate. Until then, see the pictures and read about what I was thinking at the time (sorry if some of them sound like Freestyle Skiing manoeuvers 8):

square
	good luck knot with doubled rainbow cord Some colour variations.
square good luck chrysanthemum variation knot the chrysanthemum variation
square good luck
	rotational variation knot a rotational variation
triangular good luck knot the triangular (3) good luck knot
pentagonal good luck knot the pentagonal (5) good luck knot
hexagonal good luck
	knot half tied with rainbow cord the hexagonal (6) good luck knot
hexagonal good
	luck knot tied in white and glitter blue cord an incomplete instructions for the hexagonal good luck knot
heptagonal good luck knot the heptagonal (7) good luck knot
octagonal good
	luck knot half tied with rainbow cord the octagonal (8) good luck knot
nonagonal good luck knot the nonagonal (9) good luck knot
square
	reverse crown luck knot You might ask yourself: what happens if I flip the knot back to front after the first crown? Well, your corner ears get folded under and hidden, leaving what looks more or less like a standard good luck knot with only side ears. Let's call it the reverse crown luck knot.
square inset
	ears luck knot square inset ears luck knot
square inset
	flower ears luck knot square inset flower ears luck knot
square
	corner split luck knot square corner split luck knot
square corner
	cross twist split luck knot square corner cross twist split luck knot
square reverse
	corner split luck knot square reverse corner split luck knot
square corner crown
	luck knot square corner crown luck knot
square corner counter
	crown luck knot square corner counter crown luck knot
square reverse
	corner crown luck knot square reverse corner crown luck knot
square reverse
	corner counter crown luck knot square reverse corner counter crown luck knot

CLW

Creation Date: Mon Feb 16 23:59:44 PST 2009
Last Modified: Sunday, 20-Jun-2010 00:49:08 UTC
Page accessed at local time: Tuesday, 19-Mar-2024 08:16:34 UTC