This week I got a bee in my bonnet which kept buzzing, "Make a macramé owl!" Here is how it started ...
I did a Google search for rope because I still want to do the
monster-big crochet doilies for the wall. While clicking around I found a macramé retailer and found a
page of rare macramé books. That 's when the bee entered my bonnet.
Macramé isn't new for me. As a very young girl I made a macramé owl. I was itchy up to my elbows because of the rough rope we used. Maybe it was wool, which also makes me itch. Anyway, I remember being very happy about picking out the perfect stick for under it's feet.
Then in high school I made a million-and-one friendship bracelets. I always had one safety-pinned to my leg. I actually didn't realize until recently that I was doing macramé when was making the bracelets. I was paging through an old craft book and looked at the instructions for the knots and recognized the half hitch. It was at that moment that I thought that I'd like to macramé a whole bedspread with crochet cotton. I know that's nuts, so I haven't moved forward with it ... but I still want to do it.
I think it was the first issue of Craft Magazine that had a how-to for a macramé iPod cozy. And, again, I thought about making something, anything macramé. But it wasn't until this week when I saw all those vintage craft books online that the urge became overwhelming.
Well, I had ignore the bee for most of the week because I had zero time to devote to macramé owls. But then Friday night I was able search around and try to find a macramé owl pattern. I'd decided to make one with embroidery floss as an homage to friendship bracelets. I was a little surprised (and a lot crestfallen) to find out that making a mini macramé owl wasn't an original idea (this one is
cute and these are
amazing). But after a couple moments of "aw shucks," my initial enthusiasm came back. I scoured the web and could only find these two owl patterns:
Macramé owl pattern that I decided to use.
Three macramé owl patterns that I might try later.
And, if you've ever done a search for macramé owls (or read Boing Boing), you will have seen this
INCREDIBLE gallery.
To make a long post even longer, I picked out some cotton DMC flower thread (which has been discontinued) that someone gifted me. It's one ply... ONE PLY. Oh so tiny. I attached it to a mini
rectangle ring (I know it's an oxymoron, but that's what they are called), rigged it up on the couch, and started knotting. I just finished it this morning. And, yes, I'm holding the center threads of the square knot with my toes.
In spite of the owls slightly lopsided head (the threads on the left are tighter than the right), I love this little guy. I was thinking of putting him on my keychain, but I think he'd get wrecked. Hmm. I'm definitely planning a trip to the library to see what I can find in the way of kick ass macramé patterns. I know there's a bazillion owl patterns out there and I'm gonna find as many as I can.