I find one of the easiest ways to build nice, consistent Celtic knots is to use graph paper. This gives you an even guide to follow as you plot out your knot. I usually use graph paper where every second dot is slightly bigger, going both up and down. This leaves you with one regular dot, and then an emphasised dot, then another regular dot, and so on. You can bold every second dot yourself on regular graph paper by just using a different colored pen or marker to touch them up (see panel below for dot marking).

In each panel I will show you step by step how to create a Knotwork Border. Each new step will be in red. As you go through the panels, old steps will turn gold, and there will be a new step highlighted, again in red.

Here I'll show you how to use what we know about knots to make a fancy border quite easily! I've marked off for this one a space that is 4 x 11 big dots in size. I have also planted some walls around randomly, always making sure that they are vertical (or you can make them horizontal too, if you wish). I have then gone around and marked an "X" over the little dots that aren't crossed over by the walls.

Add your corners and your elbows around the edges, so that all your strands are used and there are no loose ends.

Pick a place where the lines criss-cross, and erase it so one passes over the other. Erase the other criss-crosses so that the over/unders alternate.

Next, The Lover's Knot Border...

If you're enjoying these tutorials, you need to get a copy of my book Creating Celtic Knotwork: A Fresh Approach to Traditional Design, Published by Dover Publications, the book has much more information than these online tutorials have, more explanations, examples, exercises to work through... become a Celtic art master!