help with bullion stitches?

[tafkabecky]

hello! I have tried several ways to make bullion stitches and they just dont seem to turn out too well.

I was hoping that you all would have some suggestons on successful bullion making!

I would love to start adding bullions to my freeform work

 

here is an example of the stitch I am talking about: http://www.healmyhands.com/how_to/bullion_stitch.html

 

I get how its done, it just dosnt happen very well.

 

thankyou in advance for all your help

[Katchkan]

What type of hook are you using? I use an in-line hook to do my bulllion stitches. A in-line hook is a hook that the shaft/neck of the hook and the head of the hook are the same. Look at the hook from the back and you can see what I am talking about. Susan Bates hook's are an inline hook where as a Boye hook has a tapered shaft/neck and the head is smaller making it more difficult to keep the lps open as you pull through.

Try not to wrap too tight and work towards a nice even wrap for all the wraps. Try doing only 4 or 5 wraps until you start to get a feel for the stitch.

I love the bullion stitch and have incorperated it into many designs.

[tafkabecky]

Kathy, I am using susan bates inline hook :-) (my favorite)

I will try wrapping loosely and evenly and only a few at first. thanyou :-)

[jimbo]

I've been experimenting making bullion hooks and have had some success with converting knitting needles. The needles have the same diameter for the full hook length (no wide thumb rest like you find with conventional hooks). I whack off the needle point, form a hook at the full needle diameter with a shorter than normal throat so the hook holds the loop size as long as possible while the loops are being drawn off the shank. I also put just a teeny downturn on the lip of the hook so it doesn't tend to grab so much. And if you gently hold the loops between thumb and forefinger on opposite sides of the hook head, so the loops tend to elongate over the throat and hook lip, there's less chance for the hook to grab loops. That and the "in line" hook style as Kathy mentioned. Its fun to see how many loops can be done. I wonder if anyone has set a record for the most loops pulled?

[Granny Square]

 

Check out this video! She isn't speaking English but is easy to follow. I haven't tried it, but I think it's brilliant! Looks like it fixes the 2 reasons I can't make bullions--tight wraps and hook snags.

[tafkabecky]

Granny Square, she sure does make it look easy! I'll give it a try. Thanks :-)

[nwilliams]

You must need right needle. Most hand embroidery needles are wider at the eye end, which makes perfect bullion. By using a straw needle with thickness beside the eye as all needle has, due to which bullions knots becomes easier.

[goodtaste]

I had trouble with bullion when I started, believe it or not, I started with a larger than usual hook so that I could really get all that wound up yarn into it , but it is not so hard to master it if you practice a bit. Three things helped me:

1. Practice with a larger hook than you need to so that the winded thread or yarn won't have loops so small that it will be a nightmare to pass them through the hook.

2. Wind the loops on the thickest part of the hook and then move them forward so that you will have a bit more of a space to insert the hook.

3. Yes, by all means use a hook designed with a thin shaft at the beginning of it!

 

Hope I've helped you some!

[gdenesse]

I gave the bullion stitch a try, and it was pretty pathetic. Then I saw Teresa's youtube video. I got my husband to fix my hooks up like Teresa's and voila! They come out perfect now. http://crochet-mania.blogspot.com

[sherryzzz]

I loosen up my tension to almost nothing, and make sure to pull of each loop to the height of the first loop.