Classic Macramé knots and patterns from ancient times

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Macramé stripe – Arabic subject.
Macramé is an Arabic word, signifying an ornamental fringe or trimming, which has been adopted as the term for a certain kind of hand-work, known also as «knotted fringe» or «Mexican lace» and produced by the knotting, interweaving and tying together of threads.

We have given the preference to the Arabic name because of its less definite meaning, seeing that not only fringe and lace, but trimmings of all kinds, in the shape of bands and stripes and headings, can be worked in macramé.

Until its revival about ten years ago, when it was regarded by many as a new invention, the art of macramé making had for centuries become almost extinct and save here and there in the convents, was quite unknown.

The multitude of uses to which it can be turned as a trimming, the infinite variety it admits of and its great durability and strength, make macramé well worth a study; the difficulties that repel many at first sight are only on the surface and any one who carefully follows the instructions given in the following pages, will soon overcome them and be able without pains to copy the charming designs that accompany them, which remind us of the wooden lattices in the windows of Eastern houses, doubtless familiar to many of our readers, under the name of moucharabieh.