Tutorial - Macramé

I promised a while back to make a macrame "how to", and here it is. You need a "calf" which is the thread/threads or piece of skin in the middle of the macramé braid (the calf is the thing that determines how long the braid will become) and two strands of wired pewter thread. It's rather hard to tell how much pewter you'll need since it depends on the width of the calf and your technique but a basic guide is to make the pewter threads at least 4 times longer then the calf. Since the macramé braid really want to twirl around it's center you need to straighten it continually during the braiding if you don't want to make for example a necklace where the twisting around the center can be really pretty. Then you just turn the braid over every 8 or so repetitions of steps 1-6.

How to make a macrame braid:
1. Arrange one pewter thread on each side of the calf.
2. Take the right thread and lift it over the calf.
3. Take the left thread and place if over the right thread, still on the left side of the calf.
4. Take the left thread and place it under the calf.
5. Continue up through the loop created between the left thread and the calf.
6. Tighten the threads and continue from step 1.

And the end result in this case is the braid shown here: Macramé can be used in many ways