Surely knot!

Sorry for the cheesy title on this post, but I couldn't resist. :-)

I've just finished the bundle of knots below the butterfly on Examplar IV. You can see the very bottom of the butterfly at the top of the picture. The gap between these is for personalization. I haven't figured out what I'm putting there yet.

One of my pet peeves about stitching reproduction and historical-style samplers is the way the instructions usually say to outline first and then fill in the outlines. That was the case with these knots. I often hate outlining first, because then I'm fighting with the outline stitches as I try to fill them in. I think the purpose is to reduce problems with counting stitches, although it may also be more historically accurate. (Does anybody know?)

For the butterfly, I outlined it first, so I didn't have to count all of the tent stitches. I did struggle a bit with the outline around padded satin in the butterfly's body, and ended up stitching the outline on the body again after I finished. With the knots though, I did the knots first, then the outlines. I didn't have a problem counting the stitches in the knots. That's my rule of thumb: If I think I can count it correctly, I'll save the outlining until later.

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On another note, I finally posted my colors for Gay Ann's Mystery in a Corner. They are in this post.