The Countryman’s Favour or the Harvest Knot is one of the most traditional and easiest straw crafts. The shape of the knot resembles a heart, and it was often presented as a love token. Young men would make those favours at harvest time for their loved ones. If she was wearing the Harvest Knot next to her heart, her love was returned.
Tutorial:
A Countryman’s Favour is a simple corn dolly made of 2, 3 or more straw stalks. You can use several plaiting techniques for this craft.
You’ll need:
natural wheat straw stalks (available here*)
ribbons (available here*)
My Countryman’s Favour with the blue ribbon is made with 3 straw stalks and a simple braid. For the Countryman’s Favour with the yellow ribbon, I used the “Compass Plait” technique. You can find the instructions for that here. Compass Plait Tutorial.
Make a straw plait in your desired design and tie the ends together with a straw colored twine. There should be 1 – 2 inches of straight ends left.
1. Bend your plait into a loop.
2. Direct the end of your plait through the loop from the back to the front. You’ll get the typical double knot design.
3. Bring the straight ends of your straws behind the grain and tie everything together with a nice ribbon.
The symbolic meanings of the different ribbon colors:
White stands for purity
Brown stands for the earth
Green stands for the germinating corn
Gold stands for the ripened corn
Orange stands for the glowing sun
Red stands for warmth and the red poppies in the field
Blue stands for the truth and the blue cornflowers
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Thank you for this clear tutorial.