Last weekend I attended a women’s retreat at my church and I decided to opt in for the craft activity for the day. It was my first time ever doing Macrame! I was pretty proud of the way that it turned out.
Over a year has gone by since the last women’s event, which amazingly happened right before the lockdown. I remember I chose to do a movie and board game activity last year, and there only ended up being 3 people. This year I still wanted to do a low key activity, but this time try out a craft that I’ve never done before. Hence, Macrame!
At first when I sat down, I felt a little intimidated by the activity. The general vibe of macrame is an aesthetic that I don’t really relate to. I tend to be more dorky and less boho. However, when we finally started tying knots, I realized my crafty skills were going to save me.
The first set of square knots were easy to get through. It sort of reminded me of tying lanyards or friendship bracelets. The patterns were easy to pick up on too.
Then came the most confusing knot that I had ever done: The double half hitch knot. I think I had to start that one over several times because I kept doing it wrong and ending up with no string!
Eventually I did manage to figure it out (I think), and then could move on to the next knot and eventually could call it a day on my macrame. I ended up deciding to not trim my strings at the bottom. I kind of liked the uneven look of it.
When they were cleaning up, they ended up asking if we wanted to take any supplies home to make another one, and I was all over that.
I ended up working on it a few days later after work with the intent to send it to my mom for Mother’s Day.
Doing the activity after a full day of working on a computer proved to be very therapeutic. It was nice to be able to do a somewhat mindless activity that used my hands and got my eyes off a screen.
Attempting to come up with my own pattern was very mind-bending. I think I had to untie knots several times since I kept having an extra one, or missing string when I would finish a row. Eventually I figured out all my mistakes, and I could finally finish my random design and was pretty pleased with the outcome.
Not sure if I will do this again on my own, as far as buying supplies for it, but who knows. Overall, it was a good creative change of pace for me, and I enjoyed the new experience.
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