When Something's Wrong, Undo It Now, Not Later
Okay. You've been filling in your middle section, freestyling a bit, and by now you've probably noticed something isn't sitting right. A knot that's crooked. A row that leans. Something that doesn't match the picture in your head.
Here's the thing. Fix it now. Not at the end, not "I'll live with it," now, while it's two knots deep instead of twenty.
Why this matters more than it seems like it should
Cord doesn't forgive the way you'd want it to. A knot tied wrong under the next ten knots is still wrong. It's just wrong and hidden now, and hidden problems in macrame have a way of showing up right when you step back to admire your work.
I ran a whole section of double half hitches backward once. Same knot, wrong direction, and it looked fine up close, row after row, because I was focused on the knot right in front of me and not on the section as a whole. Took me stepping back to see it. Two hours of work, gone, because I didn't want to stop and check.
So that's the lesson. Step back every few rows. Not every knot, you'll drive yourself crazy, but every few rows, back up, look at the whole thing from a few feet away. That's how you actually see a lean or a direction error. Up close, your eyes lie to you.
The magic ring confession
So here's where I always mess up, and I tell people this on day one so nobody feels bad later. Magic rings, round starts, anything that wants to close up into a perfect little circle. My hands just don't do it clean. I fudge it every time. I get it close enough, tug it a certain way, and move on. If you want a proper circular start, tight and textbook, I'm not your guy for that one. I can teach you every knot in this project and teach it well, but that particular move, I fake my way through same as you will.
I bring that up here because it's related. The difference between a magic ring I fudge and a knot I leave wrong is intention. Fudging means I know it's not perfect, I've decided it's close enough, and I'm moving on with open eyes. Leaving a mistake in because you don't want to undo it is different. That's not a fudge, that's just letting a small thing become a permanent thing because fixing it felt like a hassle.
Fudge on purpose. Don't leave mistakes on accident.
How to actually undo it
- Find where the problem starts. Not where you noticed it, where it actually started. Usually a row or two before you spotted it.
- Untie back to that point. Yes, this feels like it's going backward. It is. That's fine.
- Before you retie, figure out what went wrong so you don't do it again in the next five minutes. Was it a knot tied backward? Tension too loose on one side? Cords crossed the wrong way at the start?
- Retie slower than you were going before. You're not in a race.
If you're working with cotton, which you should be, this is one more reason I like it. Cotton holds its shape but it also lets you untie and retie without turning to mush on you. The slippery poly cord slides apart easy when you don't want it to and grips stubborn when you do. Cotton's more forgiving both directions. Worth the same money, better behavior.
A word on tension while you're fixing things
When you're undoing rows, watch your working cords, they can fray a little if you yank instead of easing them back through. Go slow, especially near the dowel where everything's under more tension. Nobody's hurt themselves undoing a macrame knot that I know of, but I've seen a cord end get frayed enough it wouldn't hold a clean knot after, and then you're cutting length you already measured for. Ease it out, don't rip it out.
The bigger point
A finished ugly project beats a perfect unfinished one, I believe that and I've said it in this class more than once. But an ugly project you noticed was wrong and chose not to fix, that's different from ugly-but-honest. Fix what you can catch now. Let the rest be your fudges, the ones you chose.
Before next time: Step back from your hanging right now, today, before you tie another row, and look for anything that's bugging you. If something's off, undo it this week while it's still small.