Macramé Door Curtain – Where It All Began

I don’t know how other people start with macramé, but naturally I started big. Not with some little plant hanger or keyring. No! I went all in and took on a door curtain. 😅 The rustle of cords and the tightening of knots sounded like the beginning of a new chapter in my handicraft life.

🪢 The adventure began with cord

At the time I was still a complete clueless beginner in the world of macramé. I measured out the cords, and naturally got it wrong. I thought 8 metres would be more than enough. Only later did I realise it should have been at least ten, because of course I fold them in half! 🤦♀️ And so came my first macramé lesson: always allow extra. When the cords turn out too short, creativity has to step in. I spent hours on YouTube, fast-forwarding, sighing and starting again. Eventually I found a video by an older German lady whose calm voice and perfect knots rescued my work. It felt like finding the way out of a maze of cord.

🧶 How did the curtain come together?

The curtain is about two metreshigh, but I only knotted the pattern across the top metre. That one metre alone meant 5–6 hours of work. Every knot had to be learnt from a video: pause, rewind and try again. Some knots even acquired names of their own, such as ‘the one that refuses to stay put’ and ‘the one that twists the wrong way’. There was laughter and there was swearing, but in the end the curtain stood there straight and dignified. Once it was finished, it felt as though I had knotted a small victory over myself. I even bought a macramé book – thick and full of pictures. It said, ‘Macramé is the art of patience.’ Now I know that isn’t just a slogan. It’s a fact.

‘You’re mad… but persistent.’ 😁 That’s what an acquaintance said when I told them about my curtain. And you know what? I agree.

📏 How much cord?

Well… about 500 metres. Yes, five hundred. If it had been yarn, I could have knitted a jumper for a smaller man. My mother always used to say that a full-grown man’s jumper takes a kilometre of yarn, so half a jumper’s worth simply ended up hanging in a doorway. 😄 But I don’t regret it. That curtain was my first big project and it reminds me that even getting the measurements wrong can still end beautifully.

🐾 Maimu’s view?

Maimu sat beside me, studied the knots with her wise expression and said calmly: ‘Every knot counts.’ She’s right. Every knot is a breath of its own. When there are hundreds of them, you realise macramé isn’t just cord; it’s meditation in shape and rhythm.

✨ What next?

Once the door curtain was finished, I felt I couldn’t stop there. I made smaller things: bracelets, trees of life, dreamcatchers and bags. Every new piece brought something with it: steadier hands, bolder ideas, more rhythm. And then… came my next source of pride, a macramé lampshade. I’ll tell that story in the next post, because it deserves a chapter of its own. 💡

Macramé door curtain – the beginning that set the knots moving in rhythm.