The wonderful world of macrame'

Growing up in the ‘70s, I pursued a lot of the things that were popular during those years. It seems like everyone back then had house plants. Spider plants, Wandering Jews and lots of different types of ivy were very popular. All of us kids even had them. There were all sorts of cool clay pots and old rusty metal pots and wood box holders that we would plant them in. We even used Miracle Grow (in its early years, I believe) to help them along… a few drops from the little eye dropper, stir it up and water the plants with it.

Displaying our plants was a thing of pride, and macramé plant hangers were a very popular way to do this. You could buy them in all the great colors of the era – gold, burnt orange, avocado green, dark reds, etc. but the best was using natural jute. Being a creative type of guy, this eventually led to me wanting to make my own plant hangers. So – I bought a big roll of jute and some magazines that had patterns to follow and began my Macramé creating forays.

I was able to make hangers for friends and family members as gifts. I also found a pattern that made a nice wine bottle holder, a total of 8 bottles, cork down, attractively displayed. I actually ended up selling a bunch of these to friends of my mom and grandma. I made a little money and had a fun time doing it. Yup – did my part to contribute to the various bric-a-brac and decorations that helped to define the decade.

…I still have a box with all the jute, patterns, even my records from the ones I sold. I don’t think I’ll ever get back into making macramé hangers, but if I do, I guess I still equipped and ready to go.