Macrame

Macrame is a textile technique for creating patterned, three-dimensional decorative work using knotting alone, without weaving or knitting, in which cords are tied together in combinations of a relatively small number of basic knots, most fundamentally the square knot and various hitching knots, repeated and combined in sequence to build up openwork patterns, fringes, and structural forms such as hangings, bags, and plant holders. The technique's name is generally traced to an Arabic word for a fringed or knotted ornamental trim, and the practice spread through trade and, notably, through sailors, who used and taught decorative macrame knotting during long sea voyages as both a practical and ornamental skill, a lineage still reflected in nautical-sounding knot names used in the technique today. Macrame saw a broad revival in home craft and decorative art during the 1970s and again in the 2010s, but the underlying knotting technique itself has a continuous history across multiple cultures reaching back centuries earlier.