(Note – If you’re new to my page, this is how it works: At the beginning of each week I randomly draw a new project from my Challenge Bucket, then see what I can create before the week is over. You can read all about the Challenge here.)
With Week 1 in the books, I was super excited to pull a new challenge for Week 2. And also a little nervous! I’m aware that some ideas in the Challenge Bucket are great in theory, but I don’t really have a clear idea on how to go about them.
I reached in my hand and pulled out… macrame! So fun! I’ve seen a lot of beautiful pieces around but have literally no experience with this one – unless you count the friendship bracelets we’d knot in elementary school.
I immediately set myself to the task of finding the perfect project. This ended up being a more challenging search that I’d anticipated, and I spent more hours than I care to admit researching how to get started and what to start making.
While there are many gorgeous pieces online, I wanted something that would be beginner-friendly, beautiful, and would fit in my house (and that my husband wouldn’t hate.) Friends, let me tell you I really struggled to nail down what I wanted to do! There was one piece, though, that I kept coming back to. A beautiful wall hanging. Was I aware that it was far beyond my skill level? Um, kinda? But I figured, “I’m crafty! I can figure it out!”
So the next day I set off for Michaels craft store. This was a big project and I didn’t want to spend much money, so I was pretty pumped when I found a large spool of “macrame cord” and matched it to the coupon of the week – 50% off! I walked out of that store with a big roll of cord for $6.50 and a smile.
When I got home I continued researching how I was going to create the wall hanging; unfortunately, in that research I found out that I had bought the wrong type of cord. Not wanting to pass up the great deal on the quantity I found, I relinquished my grandeur ambitions of miraculously completing a large, complicated wall hanging on my first attempt, and began to set my sights on smaller, more attainable projects. (A smaller project would also pair well with the fact that I ended up in the emergency room this week and came home with 7 stitches on the back of my heel.)
I landed on the idea of coasters. I found a really cute flower-ish pattern and (bonus) a simple tutorial on how to make it.
A really great tip from the particular tutorial I found, was pinning down the outermost points on the shape to a cork board. This was extremely helpful in keeping everything where it was supposed to be while I worked. Once this was done, it was just a matter of weaving the cord around the same pattern multiple times.
I wove five rounds and created this hot mess right here. But don’t be alarmed! It looked the same as the hot mess the gal on the tutorial created too. Now it was just a matter of tightening from the inside out. As I patiently pulled and tugged, the final form took shape. This part was SO satisfying.
When the pulling was pulled and tugging tugged, I was left with this sweet little coaster. (Can you believe it after the previous picture?!)
Next I just needed to cut the cord and glue down the ends. I opted for hot glue, and passed the time it took to heat up the gun by eating a fudgy chocolate brownie leftover from a bridal shower. (While not integral to this crafting story, I feel like the brownie still played a vital role.)
While I was happy with the look of the coaster, I wasn’t convinced it would cope well with coffee stains. I opted instead to use it as a mat under my sweet little never-going-to-die-cuz-it’s-fake succulant plant. Just a little detail in the vignette that I thought made it look a little more styled.
This project was cute and fun, but I realized it barely whet my appetite to learn more about macrame. So I decided to attempt to learning a few different knots. I DID have 40 more meters of cheap cord to play with, after all!
I tied up some more cords and attached them to my cork board to learn the spiral and square knots. I then decided that the square knot experiment needed to become a key chain for our mail key! (A little extra insurance the kids won’t lose it on the way back from the mail box!) I finished it off with some embroidery thread and attached the key.
My finished macrame Challenge projects!
This wraps up my second official challenge but, as I’m just getting the knack for this, I’d like to keep practicing the knots to solidify the info in my brain. I also keep thinking about that beautiful wall hanging I mentioned at the beginning of this post. So this Challenge will have a Part 2! Check back next week to see if I’ve created a masterpiece or my ambitions got the better of me.
