In print in one form or another pretty much continuously since 1981, this book is responsible for reviving the art of Chinese knotting and likely many cascade effects.

First was the original (Traditional) Chinese edition published in Taiwan (the cover of the original Chinese edition is identical in illustration to the English edition pictured at left but for the title rendered in Chinese text):
中國結
Author: 陳夏生 (Chen Hsia-Sheng, chén xià shēng)
ISBN: ??
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 edition (January, 1981)
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches

Soon followed by an English edition also published in Taiwan and distributed by Tuttle (see left):
Chinese Knotting
Author: Lydia Chen
ISBN: 0-8048-1389-2
Hardcover: 116 pages
Publisher: ECHO Publishing Company; 1 English edition (January, 1982)
Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 inches

The easiest way for me to enter Chinese text is by typing English text and getting something to translate it for me. Generally speaking this does 60% of the job. Then there are the characters that are more difficult to translate, so I need to enter them directly. For this task I like to write the characters into a system that does Chinese handwriting recognition. For this job I used the free iTranslate iPhone app and the nciku dictionary. I used the iTranslate app, mostly because I was out, but it had the added advantage of quickly swapping the Chinese and English back and forth from the translate/translated windows for refinement of the desired characters. Also, unlike the other translation apps on my phone, iTranslate allowed me to get the data out (via email in this case). Apparently iTranslate is "powered by Google" and indeed once I got home I also used Google Translate with largely the same results although there is no handwriting recognition involved there.

If you take your 4 sided good luck reverse corner crown variant and instead of crowning first in the counter clockwise direction (this one started with crowning in the clockwise direction) then flip it over, and crown the corner loops (clockwise in this case). The result is symmetric with the front and back looking the same. Of course, substantially the same result can be obtained by crowning in the counter clockwise direction both times instead.

This is a variant, not in the book (and arrived at by accident), but I think worthy and aesthetically pleasing.

Books mentioned in this post:

小耳翼疊壓吉祥結E型
little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot E type/build/model
Type 5 Good Luck Knot with Small Outer Loops

Take your standard first step for a good luck knot (counter clockwise in this case), flip it over, then crown the corner loops (clockwise in this case). The result is symmetric with the front and back looking the same.

I still haven't found my copy of Lydia Chen's The Complete Book of Chinese Knotting (English version of Chinese Knotting 3 yet, but I got it out of the local library local library so I can give you the illuminating official English translation of the name (Type 5 Good Luck Knot with Small Outer Loops). I'll go back and add to the previous posts their appropriate versions as well.

小耳翼疊壓吉祥結D型
little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot D type/build/model

The 8th variation I'm posting about, Lydia's 6th variation (numbered 7, but the first one was a straightforward 6 sided good luck knot, not really an earth shattering variation). If I had thought about it before I started quick-posting this bunch of knots, I would have put this one third because it's the most basic significant variation that is interesting (I'll show you the uninteresting ones later 8).

The reverse comes first, after completing the first crown, flip your knot over. Then extend your corners. Finally, crown the corners, and split the opposite loop.

小耳翼疊壓吉祥結C型
little ear wing fold pressure lucky/auspicious knot C type/build/model

Happy moo year! It's the year of the Earth Ox (a couple of years ago, we had to explain to our Chinese teacher why it was not the year of the "cow" or for that matter "sheep" (vs "goat"), "bunny" (vs "rabbit" or "hare"), "mouse" (vs "rat"), or "chicken" (vs "rooster"). 8)

In the book as a variation, so I tied it, the 4-flower inset ears could be any knot. Simply tie 3 in your cord and then lay out your good luck knot with the knots at the end of the cross shape and tie as as you would the good luck with inset ear. Ms. Chen stops there, but why would you want to do that? When done, your cord ends hang in the 4th side ear. So, tie another flower (or whatever you've decided to put in your ears 8).

I have this vague recollection that Lydia Chen hadn't really named the variants in her Chinese Knotting 3 book, they were more like "variant A" and "variant B". Whether numbered or named with poetry, I just wanted to see what she was naming things and check if it was different in the English version, but where was my book? Not on the shelf where it's supposed to be with one and two. Not in the bedroom where I might have piled it upon unpacking from the last trip. Not in the living room, not here, not there, still not here, etc. I must have wasted most of a day looking without success. So I take the Chinese version which is right where it belongs and look at the characters.

The good luck knot (吉祥結), a name coined by Lydia Chen who wrote the seminal book Chinese Knotting in both Chinese and English, is based on the crown knot. Usually the crown knot is tied in sequence to create a sinnet, a braid composed of knots. The best static (not animated) instructions I have found on the net for the crown sinnets are by The Boondoggle Man who, unfortunately, calls them the square stitch and the circle stitch.