Archaeologists argue that the history of macrame is as old as the history of mankind itself. The remains of weaving, reminiscent of macrame, are found near the ancient fireplaces, where cavemen once warmed and ate mammoths. What is interesting, it is impossible to say exactly where this art originated, because the primitive articles thousands and thousands of years old are found in different countries, on different continents.
Even the origin of the word “macrame” is quite unclear. Scientists have a lot of assumptions: someone says that the word is of Turkic origin and means “kerchief, shawl, lace,” and someone sticks to the version that it is a French word and means “weaving” proper.
Whatever the case may be, nowadays macramé is known in all countries. And in each country macrame technique has its own characteristics. There are special types of macramé in Europe, China, Japan, Arab countries, as well as almost every tribe of Indians in both Americas.
Where to start?
Sometimes it becomes so offensive for yourself – there are ancient arts in the world about which you have no idea at all! And immediately you want to try it. But what to do if you have never tried macramé weaving? To begin with you need to prepare a basic minimum of tools.
To master the basics of the weaving technique, you will need:
An oblong cushion (preferably heavy) – for example, an old sofa cushion or a homemade one stuffed with rags will do;
thick and strong English pins; darning needles with beads on the ear can also be used;
good scissors;
a tape measure and a long ruler;
crochet hooks;
bobbins or bobbins to make it easier to work with very long threads.
What to weave?
Another important question – what are we going to weave? Various types of macramé are weaved from ordinary clothesline, cotton threads, thick wool, strips of leather, ribbons, soft vegetable fibers, braided wire and even from twisted strips of fabric.
As practice shows, it is most convenient for beginners to work with soft cotton rope – not too thin, not too thick. If you make a mistake, it will be easier to unweave the weave, and it is easier and more pleasant to work with such material. In order not to tire your eyes, choose light-colored ropes, because the knots are more visible and expressive. By the way, let’s start studying the main types of macrame knots.
Types of knots
Macramé is a weaving of different types of knots, of which there are now about a hundred. To learn all types of macramé knots would probably take too much time. But to at least try, you only need to master a few simple knots – say, about a dozen.
The most important knot, without which almost no weave can do without, is called the anchoring knot. As the name implies, this knot is attached to the base: another thread, a wooden stick, a metal bar, a ring, or even to the finished product. This knot has several varieties, but we will study only two for now: locking outward and locking inward.
Fastening the lock outward is done as follows: bend the thread in half, put the middle of the basis, loop-bend, let it through the base pull the ends and tighten.
Fastening the castle inside is done in much the same way, only loop-bend is placed in front of the basis.
Now let’s study a simple knot. However, you already know what it is. Let us just clarify that a simple knot can be right and left. The right knot has a loop on the right and the left knot on the left.
The figure eight knot is a little more complicated. Form a loop from the rope, take the end of the rope back above the loop, loop it around and insert it into the loop from top to bottom.
The loop knot is made with two strings. It can be right and left. He is also very simple.
Now let’s try to weave more complicated knots. First, let’s learn the flat knot. For this we need four ends of the rope at once. To make the weaving technique clearer to you, we used threads of different colors. First we will tie the right-hand knot, followed by the left-hand knot. As a result, we have a very beautiful knot, called a square, or hunting.
By the way, if you tie flat knots only on one side (left or right-handed), you will get a very nice twisted lace.
Now let’s study the rep knot. The macrame weaving technique distinguishes a couple of basic rep knots: horizontal and vertical.
There are four ends of the rope involved in making a horizontal rep knot. We took the left one as a base, unrolled it, and pinned it. Take the second thread (it is called a working thread), wind the base with two loops. It is not necessary to tighten very tightly, as well as to leave the loops weak. You will have to practice so that the weaving is even and beautiful.