French knots have a reputation. Ask any group of cross stitchers about them and you'll hear groans, nervous laughter, and stories of projects abandoned because "there were too many French knots." Here's the thing, though: French knots aren't actually hard to do. They're hard to teach. Most tutorials rush through the steps or skip the small details that make the difference between a neat little bump and a tangled mess.
Once you understand why each step matters, something clicks into place and suddenly this "dreaded" stitch becomes one you'll reach for again and again. In this guide, we'll walk through how to do a French knot step by step, explain what's actually happening with your thread, and cover the most common problems with fixes that actually work. The technique is the same in hand embroidery as it is in cross stitch, so this guide will help whether you're working on aida, evenweave, linen, or plain cotton. If you'd like a project that puts the technique to use, plenty of our cross stitch kits and patterns include French knots for flower centres, animal eyes, and small textured details.
What is a French Knot?
A French knot is a small, raised stitch that sits on the surface of your fabric like a tiny bead or dot. Unlike flat stitches, it has dimension; it literally stands up from the fabric, catching the light and drawing the eye.
In cross stitch, French knots appear in all sorts of designs. You'll find them as:
- Flower centres (particularly on daisies, sunflowers, and small blooms)
- Animal eyes
- Snowflakes and falling snow
- Bubbles, berries, and dotted textures
- Small accents that need more presence than a single cross stitch can give
The same stitch crops up everywhere in hand embroidery too, used for flower fillings, decorative borders, and surface texture. The technique we'll cover works in both crafts.
What makes French knots so useful is the three-dimensional effect they create. A flat cross stitch design can look lovely, but add a scattering of French knots and suddenly the piece has depth. Flower centres pop forward. Snow appears to be actually falling. A little stitched lamb looks properly woolly.
What You Need Before You Start
Gathering the right supplies will make the process much smoother. A French knot worked with the wrong needle or thread length will fight you every step of the way, so it's worth getting this bit right before you sit down to stitch.
The Right Needle
This is where many stitchers unknowingly set themselves up for frustration. Standard embroidery needles have an eye that's slightly wider than the shaft of the needle. When you try to pull your wrapped thread through, that bulge can catch and drag, making your knot lumpy or loose.
Milliner's needles (sometimes called straw needles) are the same thickness from tip to eye, so the thread slides through cleanly. If you do a lot of French knots, picking up a packet of milliner's needles is genuinely one of the best small changes you can make.
If you don't have milliner's needles to hand, you have two options. Choose an embroidery needle where the eye is as close to the shaft width as possible (DMC needles with a gold eye work well for many stitchers), or use the tapestry needle that came with your cross stitch kit. Tapestry needles have a blunt tip, which is brilliant for cross stitch but can make placing the knot fiddly on aida. The workaround is to push the needle through carefully and slowly, keeping the wraps tight against the fabric as you pull through.
Thread, Strands and Fabric
DMC stranded cotton is what most of us use for cross stitch, and it works well for French knots too. The number of strands you use affects the size of your finished knot:
- One strand for a tiny, seed-sized dot
- Two strands for a standard knot (this is what most patterns assume)
- Three strands for a bolder, chunkier knot
Try to match your strand count to whatever you're using for the rest of the project, so the knots sit in proportion with your cross stitches. You can use leftover thread from your cross stitch kits to practise.
French knots work on aida, evenweave, or linen, essentially any fabric you'd use for embroidery. The technique is the same regardless of fabric type, though you may notice slight differences in tension. On aida, the open weave means you need to be especially careful not to insert your needle back into the same hole; we'll come to why in a moment. On evenweave and linen, you can pierce between threads anywhere on the fabric, which gives you more control over knot placement.
A Hoop You Can Trust
You'll need both hands free for French knots, so a hoop is important. It keeps your fabric taut and gives you something stable to work against. We recommend brands like Elbesee or Nurge; they hold tension well and won't slip mid-stitch. Set your hoop in your lap or flat on a table so you can work with both hands.
How to Do a French Knot, Step by Step
We recommend reading through all five steps first before picking up your needle. Understanding the full sequence helps each individual step make more sense.
Step 1: Cut and thread your needle. Cut a piece of thread from your fingertips to your elbow, roughly 30 to 45 centimetres. Longer thread tangles constantly when making French knots, and you'll spend more time untangling than stitching. Thread your needle and bring it up through the fabric where you want the knot to sit.
Step 2: Hold the working thread taut. This is the single most-skipped step in other tutorials, and it's the one that makes the biggest difference. Pull your thread gently to the side and hold it firm with your non-dominant hand. It shouldn't be pulled tight enough to lift the fabric, just taut enough that there's no slack. Keep this tension throughout the whole stitch.
Step 3: Wrap the thread around the needle. With your thread still held taut, bring the needle alongside the thread and wrap the thread around the needle. One wrap gives you a small knot, two wraps gives you the standard size, and three wraps gives you a chunkier finish. Don't go beyond three wraps; the knot tends to fall apart or pull through the fabric.
Keep your needle hand still while you wrap. The thread should be doing the work, not the needle. If you start twirling the needle, the wraps will be uneven and your knot won't sit properly.
Step 4: Insert the needle close to, but NOT in, the same hole. This is the step that catches most stitchers out. If you put the needle back into the exact hole you came up through, the knot will pull straight through to the back and disappear.
On aida, aim for an adjacent hole, or pierce between two woven threads right next to your starting point. On evenweave and linen, just shift the needle one or two fabric threads over. The gap doesn't need to be big; you just need something for the knot to grip against.
Step 5: Pull the needle through, holding tension until the very end. With the needle's tip in the fabric and your thread still held taut, push the needle down. The wraps will slide down the needle, off the tip, and settle into a neat little bump on your fabric. Only once the knot is fully formed should you release your hold on the thread. Pull the remaining thread through to the back, and there you have it, a French knot.
The rhythm to remember: wrap, anchor, pull. Don't let go of the thread until the knot sits flat against the fabric.
Prefer to watch? Check out our French knot video tutorial below.
How to Do a French Knot Left-Handed
If you're left-handed, the principles are exactly the same. Tension, separate hole, wrap count. The only difference is direction.
Bring the needle up through the fabric, then hold the working thread taut with your right hand (instead of your left). Wrap the thread anti-clockwise around the needle, rather than clockwise. Insert the needle one or two threads away from your starting point and pull through while keeping that tension.
Some left-handed stitchers prefer to follow right-handed instructions while looking at them in a mirror, which can feel more intuitive if that's how you've learned other stitches. Either approach is fine. The finished knot looks identical regardless of which way the wraps go.
Why Your French Knots Aren't Working (And How to Fix Them)
If your French knots aren't turning out right, you're not alone. Even experienced stitchers struggle with these. The good news is that most problems have specific causes, and specific fixes.
Your Knot Pulls Through to the Back
This is the most common complaint, and it's almost always caused by re-inserting your needle into the same hole you came up through.
The fix: Make sure there's a small gap, one or two fabric threads, between where you came up and where you go back down. On aida, use an adjacent hole rather than the same one.
Your Knot is Loose or Floppy
If your knot sits limply on the fabric rather than forming a neat bump, you're likely releasing tension too early.
The fix: Keep holding the thread taut with your non-dominant hand the entire time you're pulling the needle through. Only let go once the knot has fully settled against the fabric.
Your Knot is Too Small
If your knots look more like pinpricks than little beads, your strand count or wrap count is too low.
The fix: Try adding an extra strand, or increase to two or three wraps around the needle. Test on a scrap of aida first so you can see what size suits the design you're working on.
Your Knots are Inconsistent in Size
A scattering of French knots looks lovely when they're all roughly the same size. If yours are all over the place, you're probably varying your wrap count or strand count without meaning to.
The fix: Pick one wrap count and stick to it for the whole project. Count out loud as you wrap, "one, two", and keep your strand count identical from one knot to the next.
The Needle Won't Pull Through
If the needle gets stuck halfway and you have to yank it through (often deforming the knot in the process), the eye of your needle is the culprit.
The fix: Switch to a milliner's needle if you can. If not, use the smallest-eyed needle you have that still threads with your chosen number of strands.
Your Thread Keeps Tangling
If you're constantly stopping to untwist your thread, it's probably too long.
The fix: Shorter lengths, around 30 to 45 centimetres, tangle far less. Let your needle hang every few stitches so the thread can untwist itself. Keep your stitching hand relaxed; gripping too tight makes the thread twist faster.
French Knot vs Colonial Knot: Which is Easier?
If French knots and you simply aren't getting along, you've got an alternative worth knowing about. The Colonial knot is the French knot's lesser-known sibling. Both create small raised dots, and from a step away you'd struggle to tell them apart on a finished piece.
The difference is in how you wrap the thread. A French knot uses a simple wrap around the needle. A Colonial knot uses a figure-8 motion, wrapping the thread first one way and then the other before pulling through. That figure-8 locks the wraps in place, which means Colonial knots are less likely to pull through the fabric and tend to sit more upright on the surface.
Plenty of stitchers find Colonial knots easier once they've got the figure-8 motion down. Others prefer French knots and find Colonial knots fiddly. There's no right answer here. If you've spent years avoiding French knots in your patterns, give the Colonial knot a try on some scrap fabric. It might be the answer you've been looking for.
Both stitches are usually interchangeable in cross stitch patterns. Where the pattern marks a French knot, you can substitute a Colonial knot without anyone being any the wiser.
Quick Alternatives to French Knots
If neither knot is working for you, you've still got options. Plenty of experienced stitchers swap French knots out for something else, and the finished piece is none the worse for it.
Seed beads
These are the most popular swap. Sew a small bead in place of the knot using a tiny cross stitch through the hole. They give a similar dimensional effect with less fuss, though they're not ideal on items that will be washed often.
A small cross stitch
This works well when the French knot is being used as confetti, scattered single stitches like stars, snow, or small dots. A single X in the same colour does the same job.
A Colonial knot
As mentioned above, is the closest direct substitute and looks almost identical.
None of these are cheating. Finished pieces are what matter, and the goal is a project you're proud of, not a French knot you forced yourself to make.
Practising French Knots on Scrap Fabric
If you're new to French knots, grab a piece of scrap fabric and give yourself permission to make messy ones. Your first few might pull through, look wobbly, or tangle; that's normal. Everyone's early French knots look a bit rough.
The goal isn't to stitch beautiful knots straight away. It's to get a feel for the tension, the timing, and the motion. At some point, usually sooner than you expect, something will click.
Once you're feeling confident, try adding French knots to your next project. Our floral cross stitch kits often include them for flower centres, and they're a lovely way to practise on something you'll actually want to keep.
If you get stuck, our Facebook community is always happy to help troubleshoot. Post a photo and you'll have advice within hours. For more stitching techniques, you might also find our guides to back stitch and cross stitch for beginners
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I do a French knot in cross stitch?
Bring your needle up through the fabric, hold the thread taut, wrap it around the needle once or twice, then insert the needle just beside (not in) the same hole. Pull the needle through while keeping the thread taut, and the knot will settle on the surface of your fabric.
How many strands do you use for a French knot?
Two strands of DMC stranded cotton is the standard for 14-count aida. Use one strand for a tiny knot, two for a standard size, and three for a chunkier finish. Match your strand count to the rest of the project for visual consistency.
How do you do a French knot on aida?
The key difference on aida is that you must not insert your needle back into the same hole, or the knot will pull straight through. Aim for an adjacent hole, or pierce between the woven threads right next to the original hole. Everything else, tension, wrap count, and pulling through, stays the same.
What are the most common mistakes with French knots?
The three most common are: going back into the same hole (which causes the knot to disappear to the back), letting go of the thread tension too early (which causes loose, wobbly knots), and using a needle with a wide eye (which deforms the knot as you pull through). All three are easy to fix once you know what's happening.
Are French knots used in cross stitching?
Yes. They're commonly used for flower centres, animal eyes, falling snow, and any small textured detail. Most modern cross stitch patterns will mark them with a small circle or special symbol in the chart key, with instructions on how many strands and wraps to use.
Is a Colonial knot easier than a French knot?
Many stitchers find Colonial knots easier because the figure-8 wrap locks the knot in place. They sit more upright on the fabric and are less likely to pull through. Both stitches produce a similar finished look, so it comes down to which technique feels more natural to you. Try both on a scrap of fabric and use whichever clicks.
Happy stitching.
