Jute Macramé Coasters

I just love Jute for all my arts and crafts projects. There couldn't be anything better than using Jute for the Fibre Contest. This is a slightly complicated and convoluted project with Jute Macrame Coasters. But don't worry at all, I will make sure to teach you some of the Macrame knots and walk you through the entire project. Not much time consuming, this project with take you to the next level of learning and making Macrame projects. Be with me.

You may not need much items to buy, but you definitely will need some patience to accomplish this artwork. After all, 'Patience pays'.

For a long time, I was thinking of changers my coasters and was looking for some creative ideas. So far, I was able to make a pair of these coasters and will continue to add a few more taking my dining table to the next level of creativity.

1. Jute rope (320 ft approximately)

2. Wooden rod or dowel

3. Ruler

4. A pair of Scissors

5. Tape

This is a quick look at what exactly I needed for this project.

I cut 12 Jute cords. 3 " (3 feet) each. Check the image 1 for all the materials needed. Then, I hooked the wooden dowel on the table with the help of tape. This would be good to take pictures while working on this project and also it is a small sized prpject. So far so good.

This is the first step when working with macrame. The first knot I added was the Lark's Head Knot, sometimes referred to as a Cow Hitch Knot. This knot is what gets your macrame cords attached to an object, such as dowel, branch, or an anchor cord. I folded the cord in half and placed the loop over the dowel rod. (Image 4). Finally added all the 11 cords on the rod and its ready (image 9). Simple isn't it?

This is an important step and should be done carefully. In here, I placed the 12th cord equidistant from both the ends on the 11 cords as seen in image 1. Then, I took the first cord on the left and put it over this horizontal 12th cord. Just turned it around and pulled it back tight (image 2 - 5). This makes the first knot with the first cord on the horizontal cord. Repeated a second knot using the same first string in the same fashion. 2 knots per cord string. Image 7-8 shows how 4 knots are ready with 2 cord from the base wooden dowel. I continued along these lines and added (11 X 2 = 22 such knots along the horizontal string until done with all the vertical cords (image 15)

In this step, I brought the horizontal cord and aligned it with the remaining 22 vertical cords. Which makes it 22 + 2 = 24 cords in total.

Square Knot is the next important and frequently used knot after the Lark's Head Knot in macrame. In this the first step is to pull 4 cords as a group and work only on these 4 cords at a time. Square knots need to have at least 4 cords (2 working cords and 2 filler cords) but sometime you can have more. The first and last cords are the working cords. I will call them working cord 1 and 4. The middle cords are filler cords and I number those 2 and 3. These cords will switch places but will still keep their original numbering.

Left Facing Half Knot and Square Knot A left facing square knot has a vertical bump on the left side of the finished knot.

I took the first cord (working cord 1) and move it to the right over the middle filler cords (filler cords 2 and 3) and under the last cord (working cord 4). (Image 1-5). Picked working cord 4 and move it to the left under the two filler cords and over working cord 1. Pulled both working cords to tighten, keeping the filler cords straight. This is a left facing half square knot (image 5).

For the right side of the square knot, as the working cords have now switched places with working cord 1 on the right and working cord 4 on the left. Took working cord 1 and move it to the left over the two filler cords and under working cord 4. (image 5). With this I just completed the first row and the first square knot on it. Continuing along the same steps I completed the first row with the square knots as shown in image 11.

Now this is a crucial step with the even rows. In this step I kept a pair of cords on both the ends away and worked only on the remaining 20 cords (24 - 4 (2 on either ends)) and worked the same way as in the previous step with left side square knots and right side square knots until the end (image 4).

Keeping in mind every even row has to have a pair of cords on the ends without working on these and using these cords for the knots only on the odd rows, I continued and reached 13 rows until I nearly reached 8 inches so far. This was getting more and more interesting and I enjoyed it completely. Still with me?

Now I did not add any new cord as we have met the count of 24 cords. I pulled the first cord on the left and placed it horizontally as shown in image 1. Then with the second cord made a knot similar to what was done in the first step for the top horizontal cord. Continued along the same lines and you can see this image until 4. Continued till the end of this horizontal cord. By now the entire major portion of the Coaster is ready. Moving on to the next step.

By now all the cords are strongly held on the wooden dowel and so I pulled it out of the cords (image 1). Then cut this and aligned them neatly. Open un the strings on both the ends of the cords and cut into a straight and in shape. Used comb to tidy up the knotty strings and now the coaster is ready. It looks extremely amazing on a closer look. Although it seemed complicated in the beginning, trust me as you go along you will enjoy working on this.

I made a pair of Coasters and it turned out to be an amazing project adding an attractive touch on my dining table. Did you learn something nice and something new? I will explore more possibilities with Macrame Knots in my upcoming projects.