Macrame Basic Knots

Macrame Basic Knots

Beginners must be careful, in macrame basic knots, in macramé as in tatting, not to move or slacken the cord, or horizontal thread that carries the knots. The knots made by the «knotting-thread», as it will be called in future, consist of loops formed over the cord and then tightened. The knotting-thread and the cord are constantly changing places, as you work, loops having to be made now with the one and now with the other.


Macrame basic nots: Knotting on the threads

Knotting on the threads (fig. 515).—Excepting when you work with the threads of a material obtained by unravelling and drawing out the cross threads, you must knot on lengths of thread on to a cord; cut them double the length the fringe is to be and fold them in half, so as to form a loop by means of which you attach them to the cord, in the following manner.

Put the loop over the cord from the front and bring it back underneath, put the ends down through the loop, detail a, and tighten it, detail b, as shown in the engraving.

macrame basic knots

Macrame basic knots: Knotting on the threads on to a stuff edge and formation of a flat double knot

Knotting on the threads on to a stuff edge and formation of a flat double knot (fig. 516).—Push your crochet needle through the edge of the stuff from the right to the wrong side and catch hold of the loop, formed by the folding in half of the thread that is to be knotted on; pull it out to the right side, put the ends through, and tighten the loop, detail a. Detail b shows two double threads, knotted on near to each other in this way, and the first tying together of the two outer threads for the flat knot which is formed as follows:

you take the two outer of the four threads hanging down and cross the right hand one under, and the left hand one over the two centre threads.

Whilst doing this, hold the inner ones tightly stretched out on the 3rd and 4th fingers of the left hand, detail b. The manner in which the two threads are brought back and tied together again is shown in detail c; the drawing up of the threads completes the so-called flat double knot, detail d. Detail e, of the same figure, shows two flat double knots, side by side, and the first step towards the formation of a third, connecting together the two right threads of the one with the two left threads of the other.



macrame basic knots

Macrame basic knots: Knotting on threads on to a knotted heading

Knotting on threads on to a knotted heading (fig. 517).—Make flat double knots as in fig. 516, detail d, on a double cord and then knot on your threads on to the loops of the double knots, putting the loop through from the right side, so that it may lie at the back. Use double threads so that the work beneath the heading may not be too open.



macrame basic knots


Macrame basic knots: Knotting on threads on to a picot heading

Knotting on threads on to a picot heading (fig. 518) —First, crochet a row of chain stitches, then make flat double knots on the chain, far enough apart for the thread between to form picots on the chain, then a second chain of crochet drawn through the picots on one side, on to which tie triple or quadruple lengths of thread, as shown in the engraving.



macrame basic knots

Macrame basic knots: Knotting on threads with round picots

Knotting on threads with round picots (fig. 519).— Fasten the lengths of thread to the cushion with pins, about half a c/m. apart, fix the cord to one of the pegs at the left end of the cushion, hold it tightly extended in a horizontal line with the right hand.

With the left hand knot the threads that are pinned down on to the cord, looping each end twice round it, upwards from below and then drawing it through between the two loops or knots thus formed, pulling each knot to the left as you tighten it round the cord.

Make the second row of knots in the same way, taking care to lay the second cord as close to the first as possible that the vertical threads may not be visible between. One series of knots forms a bar; there are both horizontal and slanting bars as will be seen later on.

macrame basic knots

Macrame basic knots: Knotting on threads with a fringe heading

Knotting on threads with a fringe heading (fig. 520).—Knot the threads on with a picot heading, as explained in the preceding figure, then cut the picots through and unravel and comb out the threads.



macrame basic knots



For this way of Macrame basic knots, knotting on threads, a very strongly twisted material is better than a loose one, as when it is cut and untwisted, it makes a much richer and fuller fringe.