Macramé

Macramé may be the millennial DIY of the moment, but it dates back centuries!

Macramé is a type of textile created using knotting techniques, as opposed to weaving or knitting. The knots are square and form full-hitch and double half-hitches. The craft required only inexpensive and accessible materials like cotton twine, hemp, leather or yarn, with various beads used to enhance the piece. The first accounts of macramé are credited to 13th-century Arab weavers who used extra thread to create knotted decorative threads on handmade fabrics. Third-century China is also credited thanks to the pan chang knot—a series of loops that weave into infinity symbols to represent longevity. Sailors are also a major part of the craft’s beginnings in the Great Age of Sail, or the 1700s to about 1830, when they used the knots to dazzle-up their knives, bottles, and parts of the ship, while their knowledge of different types of knots were used to barter intel!