C2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 14,1981
Macrame,
ait come
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
When Charlotte Charles decided
it was time to do something for
herself, she enrolled in a night
class at Hempfield High School
and found herself becoming im
mersed in the ancient craft of
macrame. Since last year when
she first learned, she has created
many projects, some of which
enhance her RI Columbia home
and many of which have been
given as gifts to lucky friends and
relatives
Charlotte says, “Macrame is the
only thing I do and I really enjoy
it ” As the wife of Jim Charles,
sales representative for American
Breeders Service, and mother to
Melissa, 11, Mike, 10, and Matt, 4,
she of course does many other
things, but macrame has become
her one craft.
She makes it sound simple when
she states, “If you can make a
square knot you can macrame. I
couldn’t even tie a square knot
when I started.” Since then,
however, she has learned to tie
“lots of different kinds of knots”
and feels comfortable reading
directions and understanding new
ones
Knots are the basis for
macrame, of course, and the
uniformity of pressure on the knots
is what gives the final project the
symmetry which characterizes
most macrame projects. Charlotte
points out, “Knots should be tied
gently. Your knots will always be
the same, so you don’t want
someone else working on your
project.”
Charlotte also notes that
macrame does not have to be
expensive, although some
materials can be costly. All you
really need to start is cord and
some pins to hold the cord in place
as you work. Charlotte says a
board designed for macrame is
helpful because it provides a
surface for pinning and has
measurements. Special pins can be
purchased to anchor the ropes
before the knotting begins.
She says all necessary supplies
can be readily purchased in craft
stores in the Lancaster area. She
adds that cord comes in all colors
and thicknesses, which account for
the wide variety of projects you
One of Charlotte Charles most involved series of four. It took about 25
projects was this knotted wreath which is complete,
composed of 540 square knots worked in
ancient
to life
can create without having vast
experience
there are many books available
on the subject both for purchase at
craft stores and from the library.
Charlotte already has acquired a
variety of instruction books and m
her spare time studies them and
plans her future projects. “I could
spend hours looking,” she states.
She recommends that anyone
wishing to learn macrame take a
class or learn from someone who is
presently doing it "It’s a hobby for
everybody It’s very simple and
goes way back,” she says.
While macrame has recently
enjoyed a revival in popularity, it
is indeed an ancient art used by all
civilizations for thousands of
years. The art knew few boun
daries with early examples of
knotting having been discovered m
a Finnish peat bog, dating from
6850 B C. It has also been found m
areas was widespread as Egypt
and Peru The Inca Indians used
the knots instead of a written
language to record numbers and
messages.
American Indians used similar
knot records to count the days of
the week, bearing out the fact that
in the earliest days of knotting the
knots were primarily useful, not
decorative.
Decorative knots were found
mostly in the Far. East, with
temple hangings in Japan anc|
China having very ornate knots.
These were then incorporated into
elaborate clothing and other
furnishings and exported to the
Middle East where Crusaders
found them and carried them back
to Europe. After the Crusaders,
knots were often combined with
fringes, with the fringe either
added to the cloth or the weaver
simply knotting the fringed warp
threads.
The first lace pattern books
appeared in the sixteenth century,
and these included directions for a
knotting point, which is a coarse
lace resembling macrame.
In the eighteenth century fine
lace became a symbol of wealth, so
few macrame pieces remain. In
the mneteeth century interest was
renewed because of sailors who
spent long months at sea and
worked on fashioning hundreds of
articles from the readily available
js si Jon proj.
macrame gives an idea of the variety possible
rope on the ship. These sailors,
though often jealous of their
knowledge of knots, traded some
special knots and learned new ones
wherever they traveled throughout
the world. Often their products had
combinations of many knots in the
designs.
In England at the end of the
nineteenth century, children were
taught to tie knots by tying strings
to a wooden frame. From the age
of five they were taught simple
knots. Fancy macrame was very
fashionable among the wealthy of
this period. Victorian ladies with
leisure time knotted elaborate
pieces used for table covers, bench
covers or seat covers. Eventually
this craft became unfashionable
and other crafts gamed in en
thusiasm.
Now the enthusiasm is back, and
Charlotte is one of the most en
thusiastic.
One of her favorite macrame
projects is makihg pocketbooks
because they are also practical.
She was so pleased with her
progress and the results, that she
chose one to enter at the Penn
sylvania State Farm Show in
January. She didn’t win, perhaps
because macrame is judged in a
category with many other crafts,
but her enthusiasm remains and
she plans to enter something in the
local shows this fall.
The purse is hand washable, so
with the heavy knots will be very
durable and usable. Materials for
<r~ :> xk s- awi'i'ifr ww
A macrame board is a useful accessory to anyone beginning
a project in knotting. This shows clearly the use of pins in the
board to anchor the cords before proceeding.
A square knot is the first basic knot to be learned in
macrame, and this shows the first step toward completing the
square knot.
lours
throui
homestead
t/nffis
simple combinations o
the pocketbook totalled about
$lO 00.
She has made plant holders and
says, “There are a hundred dif-
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