This stitch is a stitch made up of four loops anchored by four straight stitches: when worked in a heavy thread they combine to form a circular dome.

The anchoring stitches are worked at the four points of the compass, a separate thread is wound under the straight stitches to form a circle and then four buttonhole stitches are worked over the circle, halfway between each straight stitch.

The structure of the buttonholed part of the stitch is similar to that of a Bowen or heraldic knot.  It is also similar to the structure of point d’esprit (also known as dove eye) which will feature in a future RSN Stitch Bank release.  The buttonhole stitches are referred to as Z-crossing - this means that the uppermost part of the crossing stitch mimics the shape of the lower part of a letter Z, rather than a letter S.

The working method is based on a stitch which features on the bookbinding which covered an English medieval almanac dating from the early 15th century.  The book is now held by the Wellcome Collection (see the Examples section at the end of this entry).

Jacqui Carey has done extensive investigation into the structure of the original stitch and this version is a reconstruction based on the available evidence.  See the References sections for details of her book which describes her research into the stitches used on the bookbinding. N.B. the names used are descriptive names assigned by Jacqui Carey as historic records do not give us the names by which they were known.