My First Attempt: Macramé
Introduction
I am trying to encourage others to be creative by showing what it really looks like to try someone for the first time. I am hoping it helps others overcome their fears of it not being perfect- we all start off as beginners. This post shows me trying to create a Macrame Christmas Tree - was it a fail or can I say nailed it?
Why Macramé
When I started this adventure with my friend, she made wreaths and did macramé while I did woodworking. We had a few other things mixed in as were trying to figure it all out. Here is a picture from that first show we did for St. Jude in June 2021. (To read the history - see my post on Starting a Handmade Business)
Looking through the pictures was a good reminder of how far I have come from that first show.
Source of the inspiration: https://roamingroots.co/collections/macrame-wood-art-hangings (Her work is beautiful - check it out)
A comment that we heard during the show was - “how hard can this be, it is just a bunch of knots”. From prior experiences, I told her not to take it personally, I have been told countless times when people look at my photography - wow, you must have a really nice camera.
A few months ago I was looking for ideas of how to hang my round signs, I had cotton rope but I wanted something that was thicker but still the same texture. Looking at what others have done, I saw this cool macramé hangers and thought back to our businesses roots. I was thinking of more the rope section and not necessarily the fringe and edging on the board.
When I decided to do the series “My First Attempt” and coming up with project ideas, the comment on “It’s just a bunch of knots” popped back into my head. As a bonus it was something I can learn to add to my woodworking and I already had a couple of colors of cord I had gotten on an Amazon Prime Day deal back 2021. It felt like this project was meant to be.
So I had a theme, not I needed to decide on what I was gong to attempt to create. I knew it had to be somewhat simple since I am a beginner but also challenging enough to show the skill actually needed. As I am writing this, it is December 2022, so I decided to go seasonal and picked a Christmas tree.
Materials & Supplies
Materials:
3 mm Cotton Macramé Cord
Wooden Star (Can also use a ring)
Wooden Beads (I had to enlarge my bead holes with a drill)
Supplies:
Tape (or something to hold down your piece)
Measuring Tape
Scissors
Making the Christmas Tree
1st Attempt (in YouTube Video)
This was … interesting. A lot of the videos I found only had music and no words, and the makers fingers made it hard to see what they were actually doing. She didn’t list the knots she was doing as as someone just starting out I had not clue what was going on. I had even watched it a couple of times. I would have preferred something written out, but written instructions online were hard to find, it was mostly videos or patterns you had to pay for. As a beginner I wanted to try first before investing in patterns - if this is something I did more of I would have no issues paying for quality, well written patterns.
I did have a bit of a laugh at myself - she had focus issues during her video and I commented it’s nice to not be alone with this struggle - common humanity. At the time I didn’t realize that my own focus had gotten messed up somehow mid-video. Oops… I did fix this for the final attempt and change some camera settings. Being a good photographer does not make one a good videographer.
I didn’t make it very far before I realized that I needed to stop and learn the basic knots.
Practice Round #1
Hi ho hi ho it’s off to google we go. I went and looked all over at different diagrams trying to figure out what was going on. I did learn that she started with a lark’s head knot then used a square knot and a clove hitch knot. A lot were still kind of confusing … but I made some progress.
After a ton of looking and searching … this may be one of the better guides I have found since they show the string in two shades of gray with makes it a bit easier to figure out (I actually found this one after the 3rd attempt - but wanted to give it to you earlier)
https://www.yarnspirations.com/rh-20160411-how-to-make-7-common-macrame-knots-and-patterns.html
2nd Attempt
I followed the video again, still ended up with a mess. I did record this, but my focus issues from the 1st attempt were not resolved. I did make it further along this round, had a better general idea of how to create a knot but I still wasn’t doing something quite right. After this attempt I about called it a FAIL and joked about my lack of knot tying skills.
Practice Round #2
Tried to practice the knots again… and started to figure out what exactly they were doing. My knots started to kind of look like what they were supposed to.
3rd Attempt & Practice
For this round I did not follow a patter, I kind of just practice making the knots.
I also did some practice of making a longer cord with half knots. This did help me get a bit more of a feel working with the string and making knots.
4th Attempt
Now I am feeling a bit more confident I took the tree on one more time. I will say that this time the video made a lot more sense. I have a tree that isn’t too bad actually. I did write out each step so I could replicate more easily. I did have a bit of an oops and didn’t cut the strings quite right, I missed the “4” and just cut 2x of each, so some of my lengths at the end were a bit wonky. To be good at this, you need practice to get consistent knots in size and then can take on more challenging projects.
Conclusion
If you go off the first couple attempts, this would definitely be a F.A.I.L. - or First Attempt in Learning.
Each time I practiced and tried I did see some improvement, but this like other arts will take a lot of practice to get better. I also noticed I started to develop a bit of a rhythm and got a bit faster and creating the knots. The timing between my first attempt - which was on a Monday to my 4th attempt was only 48 hours and only working a bit in the evenings. I did pick this up pretty quickly. More practice would only mean even more improvements.