Showing posts with label yarn macrame wall hanging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yarn macrame wall hanging. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Boho Macrame Feather DIY

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It's time for the July Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop, hosted by Erlene @My Pinterventures! The purpose of the Pinterest Challenge is to motivate us to not just pin, but to make it happen! This month's challenge is a choice of our own project! 

 I don't know about you, but I love the boho look of macrame feathers! The knot tying technique is one that you can apply to lots of decorative items like wall hangings, pendants, earrings, key chains, garlands and even wreaths! All giving off cool boho vibes! There are lots of tutorials on how to make macrame feathers on Pinterest, but I was quite intrigued to make one with the very first macrame feather diy I found here.

 To start, cut a 36" length of yarn for the feather stem .  .  . there are a variety of yarns, cords and ropes in different sizes and widths that can be used to make this type of macrame feather - mostly in natural or off white colors. I wanted to make a colorful one, so I'm using a yarn that I already had on hand.
Fold the strand in half together and place on your work surface with the loop at the top. Then take a seat in front of a good movie on tv or listen to music and start cutting about 102 shorter pieces of yarn, 15" long. This project is quite time consuming!
Once all the strands of yarn are cut, take two 15" strands together and fold in half evenly and place under the stem - with the loops facing to the right. Since the yarn is rather thin, I'm using two strands together each time for a fuller look.
Next, take two more strands, fold together and insert the loops through the first loops, pulling it through and over the stem.
Then lift up the ends of the first strands pulling them through the loops of the second strands .  .  .
 pulling the ends in opposite directions to form your first slip knot. Looking at the knot, the loop is on the right side. 
Next, repeat the steps for making the knot, only the strands will be alternated with the first loop under the stem facing to the left. In other words, take two strands together, fold and place under the stem with the loops facing to the left.  Then fold strands evenly together and insert through the left loops .  .  .
pulling strands together .  .  .
to create the second slip knot.  This time, the loop in the knot is on the left.
Continue alternating the direction of the loops - right, left, right, etc. to make the knotted strands. 



Continue adding two strands together, alternating the direction of the loops and pulling the strands together .  .  .
to create a knotted decorative stem along the center.
Once all the strands are knotted, tie a knot with the stem strands at the bottom to finish the rows of knots.
Next, brush out the strands using a wire pet brush (which I didn't have). You have to hold down the stem area while brushing so you won't pull any of the knots out. And be especially careful around the bottom end. That area is easy to pull the knotted strands off the stem. I'm sure the type of yarn or cords you use will affect how it brushes out. I tried different brushes including a detangler paddle brush with bristle pins on the yarn and that didn't work either. At one point, I tried unraveling each strand which was unbelievably slow and unproductive and soon gave up on that! Then I remembered a small stiff brush I received with my air fryer oven and used that to brush the yarn out - but really, it just helped to smooth the yarn out but not any actual fluffing like a feather looks! 
After brushing the front and back, time to trim the strands for a feather shape. Make sure you use a sharp pair of craft scissors. I started with a few different scissors and had problems cutting the yarn so I had to switch to a more heavy duty type to finish the look.

After my initial cut, I thought the feather still looked too wide .  .  . 


So I cut a bit more off after the first cut for a much better look!
And finally, apply Mod Podge Fabric Stiffener to help keep its' shape. 
So cool!
For more Pinterest inspired projects from this month's Pinterest Challenge hosts, check out the links below ↓




Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop Image

Now, let's see what the other hosts have created ⇓⇓
You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter

Monday, February 11, 2019

Yarn Macrame Wall Hanging

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It's that time again for our Monthly Challenge Blog Hop!
I've joined a group of creative bloggers to bring you a monthly challenge blog hop. On the 2nd Monday of each month we share our themed creations for the month, like Upcycling, Family Recipes or Dollar Store Crafts.  For February, it's the awesome Destash Challenge! For this one, we're to create a project using only items currently found in our craft stash! Which means making something with crafty supplies or re-making an item we've been holding on to for a while. And I know we have lots of those!

Looking around in my craft stash I came across a large roll of chunky yarn that I've had for awhile. I think I got it when finger knitting was so popular a few years ago. Trust me, I can't crochet or actually knit so finger knitting seems to be the only reason I have it! 
When I saw the bundle of yarn I immediately thought of something involving macrame. Macrame has become popular once again. I had taken classes many, many years ago and have forgotten most of what I learned. I do know that macrame is usually done in cords or rope but I think it's a great way to use up leftover yarn, too! And the best part about macrame is that you only need to know a few basic knots to make an interesting wall hanging of any kind! And I only needed a few items from my stash to make one:

Chunky Yarn
Dowel Rod
Jute Twine
Floral Wire/small dowel/wire cutters/hairpin
Command Hook

Let's begin by tying a 38" piece of jute twine on the ends of a 24" dowel rod. I used a command hook to hold the rod in place to make it easier to knot the yarn. Next, since I had 97 yards of this chunky yarn, I cut off 16 -  five feet long strips to make what's called Lark's Head Knots. Almost every macrame piece begins with lark's head knots to hold the yarn or cording on the rod.

1.  To make a lark's head knot, fold the yarn in half to form a loop on one end. Place the loop over the rod.

2.  With the loop hanging down over the rod, pull the two yarn strands through the loop around the rod.

3.  Pull and tighten the knot. 

 Make 15 more lark's head knots on the rod.


Next, I started tying the only knot I remembered:  The Square Knot!


1.  Start with two lark's head knots - 4 yarn strands
2.  Take the left yarn strand (1) and make an L shape across the next two               strands (2 & 3) and under the last yarn strand (4).
3.  Take strand 4 under strands 2 & 3 up over strand 1 and out.
4.  Pull strands 1 and 4 tight, moving up towards the top.

 Next do a reverse of the steps, starting with strand 4 to continue the look.



Then group all the lark's head knots together in two's and make square knots across the entire width of rod .  .  .


making several rows. At this point, I really didn't have a design in mind so I began making different patterns using the same basic square knot. 


I wanted to add a decorative trim to the design so I decided to make handmade wire wrapped tubes out of floral wire that I also had in my stash.
The wire tubes were so simple to make just by wrapping the wire around a small dowel rod to form a tube .  .  .

and then cutting off the excess wire.

I made lots of them!


Had to use a hairpin to thread the yarn through the wire tubes!


I think the wire tubes add a unique look to the wall hanging!

 Then continued making square knots to complete the look with uneven ends.


Looks good for a novice, right?


Check out my creative co-hosts to see their de-stash craft creations: