notes on macramé

Macramé! It's so hot right now and after many requests from the Brisbane brown owls members I pulled out the rope and string and all sorts of yarn-y bits and went through the motions again for our meet up.

Macramé owl from last year - make your own here

Last year it was all guns blazing with the macramé meet up and we tackled the owl! Appropriate? Yes! Easy? Not for those who had never tackled the square knot.

This year I thought it best to ease into the idea of working with a bunch of string, where the knots should go for a nice 'net' pattern and how it all comes together. So, firstly we went for it with the knotted plant holder which everyone pulled off very quickly and easily, country boy even used his recycled t-shirt yarn from last year's meet up to make one - oh so eco!

"Yay! It's so easy! We're going to fill up our homes with these!"

They are so easy and fun to make. For more info check out this video on Etsy but more importantly have a look at the pdf in the actual article itself as it's much easier to follow. The first one I made with 6mm rope for Kevin our uber fern to hang in but I had to double all of the measurements to get the length I wanted and also because the rope was thicker the knots take up more room. There's also a great tutorial on skinny laminx! You can make them for smaller plants with twine or yarn but if you're using them outdoors it's probably best to go for a hemp twine rather than jute which may deteriorate over time.

Kevin

After Kevin was feeling light and airy and fabulous I moved on to jars because we obviously eat too many olives and have a ridiculous amount of jars. The jars are great for storing little collections of treasures, popping a tea light into (LED only - be careful of flames near the macramé!) or more recently I've used them for plant cuttings and as vases. I love them!

made with basic twine and 4mm crochet cotton

In my macramé research travels I also came across this fab tutorial which really shines a light on how knotting twine around jars or bottles gives a beautiful nautical effect.

great craftberry bush tutorial

Then it was time to move on to the square knot. Despite the fact that I was a Girl Guide I was feeling a little concerned about dredging it back from my memories but it's super easy and images like this are a great help!

 

image from here

Here are the instructions I used at our meet up, I hope they'll be helpful for you too!

How to tie a square knot

1. Knot four pieces of string (or whatever you're using) together. The two pieces of string on the outside will be the pieces you're working with. The two in the middle will form the centre or core that you'll be knotting on.

2. Bring the left piece of string (the red one in the picture above) over the two centre strings. Then bring the right piece of string (the maroon or dark brown one in the picture above) over the left string, under the two centre strings and through the loop that is formed by the left string. Pull the left and right strings until they tighten.

3. Ok, then you're basicially doing the opposite. Bring the right piece of string (the red one in the picture above) over the two centre strings. Then bring the left piece of string (the maroon or dark brown one in the picture above) over the right string, under the two centre strings and through the loop that is formed by the right string. Pull the left and right strings until they tighten.

That's it, you have a square knot! If you want to add a bead you can slide it onto the two centre strings and keep knotting. 


Now that the square knot is mastered you can make up your own macramé fabulousness. You can even do the twisty thing by only completing step 2 above over and over till you get a nice length of twistiness.  You can make jewellery, more elaborate plant hangers, wall hangings, market bags, the ideas are endless! And you can use all different materials!

For more ideas and inspiration I have a little Pinterest board all about macramé which I'll keep adding to here.

If you have any tips, hints or links to your own macramé I would love to hear from you in the comments section below :)

Happy knotting!

Rebecca x