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  • HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List — Macrame Wall Hangings

    Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List — Macrame Wall Hangings

    This is a cheap craft. That's one of the things I like about it. You need cord, something to hang it on, and a pair of scissors, and that's most of it. Below is what to get, what you can skip for now, and where to find it around here.

    The Budget List (this gets you a finished piece)

    • Cotton cord, 3mm, one big roll. Get cotton, not the poly/synthetic stuff. The synthetic looks fine sitting on the shelf but it's slippery, your knots slide around on you, and it squeaks while you work it, which bugs me more than it should. Cotton holds a knot and costs about the same. One roll (100+ yards) is plenty for a first hanging.
    • A dowel, 12-18 inches. Wood, from the hardware section. Buy it already cut to length if you can. A rough hand-cut dowel snags the cord and it shows in the finished piece. Sand the ends regardless, dry air out here means splinters more than you'd expect.
    • Scissors. Sharp ones. Fabric or craft scissors, not the kitchen drawer ones that haven't cut anything since 2019.
    • A comb, cheap plastic one, for combing out your fringe at the end.
    • Tape measure or ruler.

    That's the whole list. Fifteen, twenty dollars, maybe less if you've already got scissors and a ruler kicking around.

    Nice-to-Have (not required, but worth it if you keep at this)

    • A second color of cord for an accent. Natural cotton plus one accent color looks good on almost anything. I'm not the guy to ask about which accent color, that's Deborah's department and always has been. I pick natural and one color and call it done.
    • A clipboard or macrame board. Something to pin your work to so it stays put while you knot. I used a cardboard box lid for my first three hangings. Worked fine.
    • T-pins. For pinning cord in place if you're using a board. Regular sewing pins bend.
    • A little dowel stand or a nail to hang your finished piece and admire it before you decide where it actually lives.

    Shopping Notes

    Craft stores carry cotton macrame cord now, usually near the yarn. If you're doing a Costco or Macey's run anyway, check the craft aisle, sometimes you'll get lucky, but don't count on it for cord specifically, that's more of a craft-store item.

    The hardware store is your best bet for dowels. Ask for a hardwood dowel, half inch or five-eighths, and have them cut it if the saw's free, otherwise a hacksaw at home does it, just sand after.

    Don't buy a kit that comes with a "pattern book." Most beginner patterns are more complicated than the thing they're trying to teach you to make. You'll learn four knots in this class and that's genuinely enough to freestyle something that looks better than anything printed in a book. I mean that. I've made about two dozen of these and I still don't use patterns.

    One more thing on cord: don't cut all your strands ahead of time no matter how tempting that feels the night before class. Bring the whole roll, uncut, and we'll measure together. I did the opposite once, cut everything first, and came up eight inches short on every single strand. Had to start clean. Measure twice, cut once, and I mean that about cord more than I ever meant it about anything else.

    See you at the first session. Bring your scissors, I'll count them at the end.

  • HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Knots & Setup

    Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Knots & Setup

    Print this, tape it to the wall next to your board, and don't overthink it past this page. Four knots and a lark's head is all you need. Everything else is just repeating those slower or faster.

    ---

    Setup

    Cord: Cotton, not the synthetic stuff. Poly looks fine on the shelf but it slides around and squeaks while you work it. Cotton holds a knot.

    Dowel: Buy it, don't cut it yourself unless you've got a real saw at home. A rough-cut end snags cord. Sand the ends regardless, the dry air out here means more splinters than you'd expect.

    Cutting cord: Don't cut all your strands at the start. I know it feels productive. Cut one, tie a full row of your pattern, then cut the rest to match. So here's where I always mess up if I skip this step: I cut everything first, measured wrong, and came up eight inches short on every single strand. Started over. Measure twice, cut once, then cut the rest off the first one.

    ---

    Attaching cord to the dowel: Lark's Head

    1. Fold your cord in half.
    2. Lay the folded loop over the top of the dowel, loop facing up behind it.
    3. Pull the two loose ends down through the loop and snug it up against the dowel.

    That's it. Do this across the whole dowel before you start knotting rows.

    ---

    The Four Knots

    Square Knot Four cords. Outer two do the work, middle two just sit there. - Left cord over the middle two, under the right cord. - Right cord under the middle two, up through the loop the left cord made. - Snug it up. Now mirror it going the other direction to finish the knot (right over, left under and up). - Half a square knot repeated makes a spiral. Full square knots stack flat.

    Half Hitch One cord wraps around a "holding cord." Good for diagonal lines. - Angle your holding cord the direction you want the line to go. - Wrap the working cord over it and up through, twice, snug each time. - Do this again with the next cord over, using the same holding cord, and you've got a row.

    Double Half Hitch Same as above, just the standard way most rows in a hanging get built, left to right or right to left across all your cords using one as the anchor.

    Spiral Stitch Half square knots, repeated, without alternating. Twists into a spiral on its own. Kids like this one. It does the work for you.

    ---

    Things people get wrong

    • Trimming fringe too early. Don't. Trim once, at the very end, with the piece hanging on the wall where you'll actually see it. Crooked fringe mid-project always looks like a disaster and usually isn't.
    • Falling in love with a mistake. Step back every few rows and look at the whole thing, not just what's in your hands. I ran a whole section backward once, didn't notice till I stepped back, and undid two hours of work. Cheaper to catch it early.
    • Magic rings / round starts. I still fudge these. If your pattern wants a fancy circular start, I'm not your guy for that part. Ask me about anything else.
    • Overplanning. You don't need a printed pattern. Four knots, a little wandering, and it'll look better than the pattern anyway.

    ---

    The only rule that matters

    A finished ugly one beats a perfect unfinished one. Fudge it if you have to. That'll do.

  • WorksheetHandout 3: Cord, Knots, Fringe — Your Project Checklist

    Handout 3: Cord, Knots, Fringe — Your Project Checklist

    Print this out and bring it to class. Check things off as you go. Nobody's grading it, this is just so you don't lose your place, which happens to everybody, including me.

    ---

    Before You Cut Anything

    • [ ] Dowel sanded on both ends (that dry air out here means splinters, don't skip this)
    • [ ] Cord is cotton, not the synthetic stuff (poly slides and squeaks, trust me)
    • [ ] I know how many total strands I'm cutting
    • [ ] I cut one strand first, tied a full row, and checked the length before cutting the rest

    So that last one — everybody wants to cut all their cord up front because it feels productive. Then they're eight inches short on every single strand and starting over. Ask me how I know.

    The Four Knots

    Check off once you can tie it without watching your hands the whole time.

    • [ ] Lark's head (this is how it gets on the dowel, not really a "knot" but you need it)
    • [ ] Square knot
    • [ ] Half hitch, left facing
    • [ ] Half hitch, right facing

    That's it. That's the whole list. You don't need more than these four to make something good. If a pattern's asking for six knots you've never heard of, that's the pattern's problem, not yours.

    Round Starts / Magic Rings

    • [ ] I have accepted that these are hard and it's not just me

    I still fudge these. I'm not going to teach you a clean magic ring because I can't do one myself. If you want that, ask around, somebody in this town's better at it than me. For this project we're not using one anyway, so don't worry about it.

    Mid-Project Check (do this every few rows, seriously)

    • [ ] Stepped back and looked at the whole piece from a few feet away
    • [ ] Knots are all going the same direction (a knot run backwards is invisible up close and very visible from across the room)
    • [ ] Tension is even, nothing pulled too tight or too loose compared to its neighbors

    I once ran a whole section backwards and didn't catch it for two hours because I was nose-to-the-work the whole time. Undid all of it. Step back. Don't fall in love with a mistake just because you already spent time on it.

    Color

    • [ ] Picked a natural/neutral as my base
    • [ ] Picked one accent color, maybe

    That's the whole system. I have no eye for this part, my wife Deborah does all our color picking at home and she's right more than I am. If you want real color theory, this isn't the handout for it. One accent color. Move on.

    Before You Trim Fringe

    • [ ] Piece is fully knotted, nothing left to finish
    • [ ] Hanging on the actual wall where it's going to live, not lying on the table
    • [ ] Stepped back one more time

    Don't trim early. People panic mid-project and start trimming and then it's too short for what comes after. Trim once, at the very end, on the wall. That's the only time you can actually see what it needs.

    Last Line

    • [ ] Fringe trimmed
    • [ ] Dowel ends checked for stray splinters one more time
    • [ ] Done

    A finished one that's a little crooked beats a perfect one still sitting half-tied on your table. Mine's been crooked on my own wall for years now. Fine craft praise, in my book: that'll do.

  • HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide

    Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide

    Everybody's hanging goes sideways somewhere in the middle. Mine still does. So here's the list of what usually happens and what I do about it, in the order you'll probably run into them.

    1. My rows are getting wider (or narrower) as I go. This is almost always tension. You're pulling some knots tight and letting others go loose without meaning to. Stop, look at your last three rows, and match your grip to whichever one looks best. Don't try to fix the old rows, just get consistent from here.

    2. My knots are slanting one direction across the whole row. So this one usually means you switched which cord is your "working cord" partway through without noticing. Happens to everyone. Step back every few rows and actually look at your piece from a few feet away, not hunched over the table. I undid two hours of work once because I didn't catch it soon enough. Don't fall in love with a mistake just because you already spent time on it.

    3. I ran out of cord halfway through a row. Measure twice, cut once, and don't precut your whole project. Cut one strand, tie a full row, then cut the rest to match. I learned this the hard way, cut everything up front and came up eight inches short on every single strand. Had to start over.

    4. My cord is slipping and my knots won't hold tight. That's poly cord, probably. It looks fine in the store but it's slippery and it squeaks while you work it. Cotton holds a knot. If you're using cotton and still having trouble, check that you're pulling snug after every knot, not just at the end of the row.

    5. My magic ring / round start looks lumpy. Join the club. Mine don't behave either and I've made two dozen of these. Fudge it, snug it up as best you can, and move forward. If you really want a clean circular start, that's a skill I'd point you to someone else for. I teach what I teach well.

    6. The dowel is snagging my cord or giving me splinters. Sand the ends, even if you bought it precut. Our air's dry here and a rough dowel will snag cord and give you splinters faster than you'd expect. A little sandpaper, thirty seconds, worth it.

    7. My fringe is uneven and it's driving me crazy. Leave it. You trim fringe once, at the very end, after it's hanging on the wall where you'll actually see it. Trim early and you'll panic and keep chasing it shorter and shorter. My very first hanging had crooked fringe. Deborah told me so. It's still on the wall.

    8. I've lost track of my pattern and don't know where I am. Put the pattern down. Most beginner patterns are more complicated than the thing they're trying to make anyway. You know four knots. Look at what's actually in front of you and keep going with those four. It'll look fine. Better than fine, usually.

    9. This is taking way longer than I thought and I want to quit. This is a weekend project. Don't let it turn into a six-week one sitting half-done on the table making you feel bad every time you walk past it. Set it down if you need to, but come back to it. A finished ugly one beats a perfect unfinished one, every time.

    10. I think I ruined it. You didn't. Undo back to where it looks right and keep going. That's the whole craft, honestly. Late is still done, and knotted-wrong-then-fixed still counts as finished.

    If something on your project isn't on this list, bring it to class and I'll come look. I'd rather crouch next to your work and figure it out than have you stuck at home guessing.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —so I'm just saying, if it's crooked, that's not a design flaw, that's a Billy King original.

    BILLY: It's fine. Deborah pointed it out on the first one I ever made and I left it up anyway. Still up. She still mentions it sometimes.

    JESS: Okay wait, we have to start there. Welcome back, everybody, this is the podcast that goes along with Macrame Wall Hangings at Utah Community Learning, I'm Jess, I produce these things, and this is Billy, who teaches the class and apparently has a crooked hanging in his front room on purpose now.

    BILLY: Not on purpose. Just didn't fix it. There's a difference.

    JESS: Tell the crooked story properly.

    BILLY: So this was early on, I was learning because Deborah's hands were giving her trouble and she couldn't finish the knots anymore, and I didn't want a half-done project sitting on the table making her feel bad about it. First one I actually finished, I hung it up, she looked at it a good long minute, and she said the fringe was crooked.

    JESS: Was it crooked?

    BILLY: It was crooked. She's got a better eye than me, always has. But at that point I'd put the work in and I wasn't taking it down to fix eight inches of fringe. So it stayed. That's kind of the whole class, honestly. You get it done, you don't let it be perfect.

    JESS: That's basically your whole philosophy in one sentence.

    BILLY: I've got a few of those.

    JESS: Give people one they can actually use today, without taking the class.

    BILLY: Okay. So here's where everybody messes up before they even start. You get your cord, you're excited, you want to cut all your strands right off the bat because it feels like progress. Don't do that.

    JESS: Why not.

    BILLY: Because I did that once. Whole project's worth of cord, cut it all first, measured twice like you're supposed to, and I still came up about eight inches short on every single strand. Every one. Had to start completely over.

    JESS: Oh no.

    BILLY: So now I cut one strand, tie a full row with it, see how much it actually eats up once the knots are in there, and then I cut the rest to match that one. Takes an extra five minutes. Saves you a whole ball of cord and an afternoon of feeling dumb.

    JESS: That's the tip. Write that down, people. Cut one, tie one, then cut the rest.

    BILLY: That's it. That's free advice, you didn't even have to sign up for anything.

    JESS: We'd still like you to sign up for the class.

    BILLY: Fair, yeah, come to the class too.

    JESS: Okay, what about the mistake where you're actually going to talk about screwing up mid-project. Do the one about the wrong knot direction.

    BILLY: Oh, that one still bugs me a little. I was knotting a big section, going along fine I thought, and I had the whole thing turned the wrong direction for I don't know, two hours worth of work. Didn't notice a thing until I stepped back to look at the whole piece from across the room.

    JESS: How far in were you.

    BILLY: Far enough that undoing it hurt. But you have to. That's the actual lesson, more than the knot itself. Step back every few rows and really look at it. Don't fall in love with a mistake just because you already put time into it. Time spent doesn't make it right, it just makes it harder to admit.

    JESS: That's a little bit deep for a craft podcast, Billy.

    BILLY: It's macrame. Everything in macrame is a little bit deep if you squint.

    JESS: Okay, last thing, tell people what's coming in the next session, because this first one was mostly knots and setup.

    BILLY: Right, so this time we did the square knot and the basic mounting, getting your cord on the dowel so it doesn't slide around on you. Next session we get into the actual shaping, the part where it starts looking like something instead of just a bunch of strings hanging there.

    JESS: And you're going to talk about the round starts, the magic ring things?

    BILLY: I mean, I'll mention them. I'll also mention that mine still don't behave. I can teach you every knot in this project clean, but the round starts, I fudge those, and I tell everybody in class to just fudge them too. Nobody's checking.

    JESS: Some listener right now is very disappointed in you.

    BILLY: That's alright. They can go find somebody with a fancier round start. I teach what I can teach well.

    JESS: Fair enough. Bring your cotton cord next time, folks, not the poly stuff, Billy's got opinions about that we'll get into next episode.

    BILLY: Strong opinions.

    JESS: See you next session.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —so wait, you handed him a cord and just made him tie it? On the spot?

    BILLY: Ten square knots. That's all I asked. Jacob's my nephew, he's sixteen, he was over at the house and he said something about how macrame's a grandma craft.

    JESS: Oh no.

    BILLY: So I said fine, sit down, tie ten of these, then tell me that. He got quiet about knot four. Finished a little piece maybe four inches long before he had to head out.

    JESS: Did he admit he liked it?

    BILLY: He did not. Never will, probably. But he asked if he could take the piece with him, so.

    JESS: That's a yes.

    BILLY: That's a yes.

    JESS: Okay, this is episode two, so for anybody just tuning in, this is the podcast that goes with Billy's Macrame Wall Hangings class up at the community center. Session one already happened, session two's coming up. Billy, how'd week one go, actually.

    BILLY: Good. Nobody cried. That's my bar.

    JESS: High bar.

    BILLY: Couple people got frustrated with the lark's head across the dowel, which is normal, that's the first thing you do and your hands don't know it yet. But by the end of the night most everybody had a decent row of square knots going.

    JESS: I want to get a real tip in here, something people can use even if they're not in the class. You got one?

    BILLY: Sure. Don't precut all your cord.

    JESS: Say more.

    BILLY: Everybody wants to. You get your cotton cord, you got your dowel, and it feels productive to just cut all your strands right up front, get em all laid out nice. Don't do it. Cut one strand, tie a full row across your dowel with it, see how much you actually used. Then cut the rest to match.

    JESS: Because otherwise—

    BILLY: Otherwise you're eight inches short on every single strand and you're starting over. Which I know because I did exactly that, my second real project. Measured once, cut forty strands, felt great about myself, got halfway into the first row and realized I was short across the board. Had to unwind the whole thing and recut.

    JESS: So now it's cut one, tie one, then cut the rest.

    BILLY: That's the rule. Measure twice, but I mean it about cord more than anything else.

    JESS: Okay so speaking of things going sideways. You said something to me before we started recording about a knot going the wrong way for a whole section.

    BILLY: Oh, that's a different one. That one still bugs me a little.

    JESS: Tell it anyway.

    BILLY: I was working a big piece, probably two hours in, and I had the direction of my knot flipped for an entire section without noticing. You don't catch it up close, it looks fine knot by knot. I stepped back to look at the whole thing hanging on the wall and there's this seam right through the middle where it changes direction. Real obvious once you're not six inches from it.

    JESS: What'd you do?

    BILLY: Undid two hours of work. Which hurts, ripping out knots you already tied is its own special kind of annoying. But that's the actual lesson, more than the knot itself. Step back every few rows. Don't fall in love with a section just because you already spent the time on it. Time spent doesn't make it right.

    JESS: That's a good one to just carry around generally.

    BILLY: It's not a bad way to look at most projects, at the end of the day.

    JESS: There it is.

    BILLY: I know what I said.

    JESS: Alright, last thing, what's coming up next session, give people a reason to show up.

    BILLY: So next time we're doing the actual hanging shape, taking your rows and bringing them together at the bottom, and then we get into fringe. Which people always want to trim right away and I make them wait.

    JESS: Why wait?

    BILLY: Because you trim it once, at the very end, once it's hanging where it's actually going to live. You trim early you'll panic and it looks choppy. Patience on the fringe. We'll also talk finishing touches, how to hang it so it's not crooked.

    JESS: Speaking from experience?

    BILLY: My first one's still crooked and it's still on my wall. Deborah told me the day I finished it. I left it up anyway.

    JESS: That's the whole class in one sentence, honestly.

    BILLY: Fudge it, that'll do. See everybody next week. Bring your dowel.

  • podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3

    Audio coming soon — show notes below.

    JESS: —no, but did they work it out, is the question.

    BILLY: They worked it out. Eight people, one pair of scissors, we passed it around all night. Took twice as long as it should've.

    JESS: This is the story you're not telling me the beginning of.

    BILLY: Sorry. So this was a few years back, small group, I hauled my whole supply tub over, cord, dowels, rings, the works. Get everybody sitting down and I go to hand out scissors and I've got one pair. One.

    JESS: You forgot the scissors.

    BILLY: I forgot the scissors. Eight people wanting to cut cord and one pair of scissors between them.

    JESS: What do you even do.

    BILLY: You pass them around. Somebody cuts their strands, hands it to the next person, everybody just waits their turn. It's not a burden. Actually it wasn't, people got to talking while they waited, it turned into a decent night. But I bring four pairs now, minimum, and I count them at the end of every class. Every single time.

    JESS: You count scissors.

    BILLY: I count scissors. It's the one thing I'm strict about.

    JESS: Okay, so, week three. We're past the first knots now, people should have some length on their piece.

    BILLY: They should. This is usually the week somebody wants to cut all their remaining cord at once because it feels like progress. I want to say something about that for anybody listening who isn't even in the class.

    JESS: Go for it, this is the free one.

    BILLY: So here's where I always mess up, or used to. Early on I measured out a whole project's worth of cord, cut every strand at once, felt real productive doing it. Got about halfway through the first row and came up eight inches short on every single strand. Every one. Had to start the whole thing over.

    JESS: Painful.

    BILLY: It was. Now I cut one strand, tie a full row with it, see how much cord that row actually eats, and then I cut the rest to match. Takes an extra ten minutes up front. Saves you a Macey's run for more cord halfway through a project because you guessed wrong.

    JESS: That's the tip. Cut one, test it, then cut the rest.

    BILLY: That's it. Works for macrame, probably works for a lot of things I don't do.

    JESS: How's everybody's fringe looking, or is it too early to ask.

    BILLY: Too early, and I tell people that on purpose. Don't trim yet. Everybody wants to trim as they go because a crooked edge bugs them, and then they panic and it's uneven and they're chasing it the whole rest of the piece.

    JESS: Trim last.

    BILLY: Trim last, once, when it's hanging on the actual wall you're going to look at it on. That's the only place you can see it true. First one I ever finished, I hung it up and Deborah looked at it a long minute and told me the fringe was crooked.

    JESS: Was it?

    BILLY: It was. Left it up anyway. Still there.

    JESS: That's your standard, right there.

    BILLY: Fudge it, that'll do. It's on the wall, it's not going anywhere, at the end of the day nobody's grading it.

    JESS: Okay, next session. What's coming.

    BILLY: Next time we're doing the actual shaping, this is where your piece stops looking like a bunch of knots and starts looking like a thing you'd hang up. We'll do the taper at the bottom, get into fringe length, and I'll show you where I usually go wrong on a round start so you don't have to find out the hard way.

    JESS: The magic ring thing.

    BILLY: The magic ring thing. Mine still don't behave, I've made my peace with it. I'll teach you the fudge version and it looks fine, I promise you nobody at your house is getting out a ruler.

    JESS: Bring your piece as far as you've got it.

    BILLY: Bring it as far as you've got it, don't stress if it's not far. Late is still done. See everybody next week.

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