Macramé

I am a bit of a magnet for anything handmade, rustic, a bit retro and of course natural and lovely and eco! This post takes me to the 1970’s and the big knotting craze of Macramé. My mum recently gave to me her original Macramé magazine dated 1978, priced up at 91p and its a real treasure. It contains pattern instructions for all kinds of wonderful creations using just string with knots with lovely wooden beads. The beginners Macramé projects start with a simple plant hanger but there are patterns for bags, dog leads, wall hangings and much more to give a go at some point.

Over this lockdown period of the Coronavirus my wonderful church community, New Life Church Letchworth, has been finding creative ways to connect with each other whilst not able to be together in person. A beautiful group of women got together for an on-line Macramé tutorial over Zoom. The host of the meeting sourced the Macramé string with beads and out it all together in a little craft bag with some demonstrations of the knots. We then had to arrange a social distancing collection of the kit in time for the meeting in exchange for the £3 to cover the materials. We then were given the Zoom meeting code to join in the fun and learn and be creative together.

It was a fantastic couple of evenings with knotting and chatting and sharing how our individual projects were all coming together. We learned three simple knots, a twisted knot, known as a snittet of half knots, a square knot or flat knot, an overhand knot and how to tie the basket using a secure wrap knot at the end. There are many Macramé tutorials on YouTube that demonstrate these different knots work but essentially it is working in 4 groups of 4 strands to make the arms of the hanger then a series of knots to make the basket.

Each and every person made something unique, no two baskets the same.

I like this as a reminder that we are all unique ourselves. Some were made with more rustic yarns like garden twine and others with the more traditional macramé cotton string. Some had beads, others without. Everyone had different size plants and bowls too. I was lucky enough to use my mum’s original 1970’s round bowl with just a fern plant that made it look quite retro. Any green indoor house plant would look good, I’ve previously used a spider plant but something like trailing ivy is ideal.

I do love a homemade gift and this is certainly something that could bring a personal touch. This gift is inexpensive to make, low impact on the environment and can be used to displays nature’s lovely plants for all to enjoy. I think I know what I will be doing for the rest of the lockdown!