I have a crafty friend who joins me in taking workshops a couple of times a year. It's always fun (sometimes boozy) and we love catching up while working on a craft. I drag her all sorts of places and she's a very good sport so when the talented Melissa DiRenzo from The Sweet Escape offered a macramé workshop, we signed up immediately.
I had last attended one of Melissa's workshops while I was about eight months pregnant with Rudy but I had fond memories of it. This one may have been even more fun and I've always wanted to learn how to make delightfully granny (and totally boho chic) hanging planters that are in style right now.
First of all, I have to share a couple of shots of Melissa's studio space because nearly every nook and cranny is creative, colourful and Pinterest-worthy!
Pretty, right? Now let's get to the craft, which was pretty easy and only took a couple of hours from start to finish. Another bonus was that, since Home Depot supplied everything we needed, I now know where to get more supplies!
We began with drapery hoops, some copper tubing, six equal (approximately 14 foot) lengths of cotton rope, scissors to cut and (optional) fabric dye to dye the ends.
We threaded the rope through the drapery hoop, creating twelve lengths of rope. We then proceeded to divide them into three groups of four and we made the spiral top part using one basic knot. It actually felt like making friendship bracelets at camp and the time flew by. We were all encouraged to use our own ideas in terms of placement of the copper tubes etc.
As you can see from the four examples, there's really no wrong way to do it!
To make the diamond ropey part that holds the planter, you can just use the same knot twice (I actually used a square knot which is the original knot once and then, instead of tying the same knot again, you do it in reverse, which makes the knot flat instead of spiral.) to join the three different sections.
It's actually very intuitive once you start. We finished by knotting them and some of us chose to dye the loose ends at the bottom. Here's my finished product.
Cute, right?