Can you believe it, the word Macramé is popping up here and there in interior design articles? Knot again – I don’t think I can bear it. If you lived through the 70s you’ll know what I mean – there’s no way to make a tasteful hanging pot holder – not even from string!
The craft craze that swept the nation filling homes with beaded string objects has an honourable pedigree though, thought to originate from carpet weavers in ancient Afghanistan, the art of macramé spread across the world by sailors, who made and sold knotted pieces of art for extra money. It is basically is a form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of “hitching”: full hitch and double half hitches. It was long crafted by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms, to decorate anything from knife handles to bottles to parts of ships. The Victorians went crazy for it and then the hobby came back in a big way during the 1970s, when a house wasn’t a home without it a macramé owl hanging against a wood panel wall in the living room.
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