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The Tornado Stitch

      The Tornado Stitch is another slightly more complex stitch; the cousin of the Quad Stitch. Think of this stitch as four Circle Stitches, arranged in a square, versus a rectangle, as in Twist or CorkScrew. You'll need four strands of boondoggle for this stitch, each being the SAME length. There are NO long strands used in this stitch. With strands 4-feet long, I can make between 4 and 6-inches of Twist, depending on how tightly I pull the stitches.

      RECOMMENDATION: You should know how to do the Circle Stitch and Twist Stitch before attempting this stitch. If you have additionally done a CorkScrew Stitch, this is even better, as you'll have more experience working with this many strands. I might also suggest that you either complete, or refer to, the Quad Stitch page before attempting this stitch.

Start with four strands of boondoggle, each cut to the SAME length. I'll use lilac, pastel yellow, baby blue, and pink in this example.
After finding the centers, place the centers of two of the strands across the centers of the other two, like this...
Make four loops and proceed to make one Quad Stitch...
...after tightening the Quad Stitch, we're ready to continue.
I want to hide the large loops at the top of this stitch, simply for looks sake, so I'll turn the stitch UPSIDE DOWN, so I'm looking at the large loops.
Create one additional Quad Stitch and pull this one VERY tightly, so as to shrink the end as much as possible. (You could simply do one Tornado Stitch here, but as this is your first time, stick to something you know.)
Remember that the Tornado is four Circle Stitches. When you create your initial four loops, START with one of the central strands and make your loop CROSS OVER to the other side of the same colored strand, as I am doing here with one of the pink strands.
The other end of this strand (the other pink one) also needs to CROSS OVER the pink strands in the earlier stitch to form its loop. Note the loops sit SIDE BY SIDE. You do NOT cross the pink loops, just the underlying stitch.
The second strand forms its loops the same way. Starting with the one in the center, CROSS OVER the earlier stitch, so that this strand now becomes an OUTSIDE strand. Your remaining strand also CROSSES OVER the earlier stitch, now becoming the second central strand.
Here's where people goof up doing the "circle" stitches. The first stitch you weave with should ALWAYS be one of the CENTRAL strands. In this case, I'm starting with the baby blue strand on the right side of the stitch, which if you look closely, is on the INSIDE of the earlier stitch.
Now I can do the outside baby blue stitch, following the same rule of thumb used in Quad: ALWAYS go OVER the NEAREST loop, then UNDER, OVER, and UNDER. If you ALWAYS start with an OVER, and your stitch falls apart, you made an error in the placement of your first four loops.
Now for the last strand. Remember, start with the INNER strand, then go OVER, UNDER, OVER, and UNDER. This shot was quite fuzzy, but you can see that its placed correctly.
After completing the last strand, notice how this stitch is also locked in place in the same two locations that the Quad Stitch was. If your stitch falls apart on you, it means you forgot to CROSS OVER something, either in the initial placement of your four loops, or in one or more of your weaves.

Zoomed in a bit, so as to show the detail of this stitch, here's what an inch or two of Tornado looks like.