Sardinian Knot Stitch Snowflake Ornament

This counted thread embroidery style, called Punt’e Nù (poont-ay-new) in Sardinian, comes from the town of Teulada (tay-oo-lah-dah), which is located along the southern coastline of the Italian island of Sardinia. It’s done exclusively in the town and not taught to outsiders often. The technique uses knots to create sets of traditional geometric designs in high relief on only the vertical threads of the fabric.
Punt’e Nù was historically used to embellish the collars, cuffs and front facings of the men’s shirts of the Teuladan folk costume, exclusively in white on white. Over time it has come to be used on tablecloths, pillowcases, table runners and other household linen items often using coloured thread or fabric.
Evenweave linen or cotton fabric is used with pearl cotton or crochet cotton threads. Motifs are primarily executed on the diagonal, though occasionally short vertical and horizontal lines can be incorporated into designs. Traditional border motifs are zigzags, notches, little crosses, cherries, leaves, spurs and the hammered chalice while compilations of other motifs such as the rose, pomegranate, cockerels with a palm tree and cockerels in pairs form more important parts of a design.

Read more in our Winter 2014 issue.
Download the PDF pattern now.

Designed by Jeanine Robertson
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