HOW TO CHOOSE THE MACRAME CORD

At the beginning of your adventure with macrame, you can use any kind of rope just to try weather braiding passionate you or if you are interested in braiding at all.

Quite a lot of beginners start with SYNTHETIC STRING, which is available in many colors. It is shiny, has an interesting texture, and additionally it is not expensive. O the top of everything else it is possible to attach its endings by melting them using a lighter. In this eay your work can be finalized in more esthetic and simple way.

LINEN STRING has a natural apparition and it is also sold in a wide range of colors. Unfortunately, while working with linen string, sometimes swelling accumulates, which makes the work more difficult.

SISAL and HEMP seems to be used as a material for making the flower hangings. They are hairy and very retro.

Now I will focus on COTTON CORDS with which I am more familiar, which I have tested, selected and finally decided to distribute due to its good quality. Take a look at fringes they texture and structure is completely different dependent on the type of the cord.

THE BRAIDED COTTON CORD looks like a shoelace. The ends of the cord stick to each other, which makes it much easier in handling than the other cords.There is a wide choice of the braided cotton cord on the market, but it is necessary to select the right one for the macrame. Most of all it should not be elastic. It is very important because it can cause that macrame will stretch and lose its shape. It plays very important role for the flower holders as they are heavy and the effect of stretching will become visible fast.

It is especially suitable for craftsmen and handcraft lover, and makes crocheting and knitting real pleasure even if it is not as soft as the macrame cord or macrame rope. With this cord and a little bit of fantasy you will conjure up plenty of goods like: flower hangers, rugs, baskets, poufs, coasters, bags, and many more.

For making macrame I am using mostly 5 mm Kabatani braided cotton cord with the polyester filling. The polyester filling assurs that my works do not stretch. One could think that there is a problem with the loose ends as the white polyester filling sticks out destroying composition, but in reality they do not cause any problem. It is enough to move a bit an external cotton layer and cut shorter the polyester filling.

ADVANTAGES:
- the string tangles easily because it does not stratify
- it is easy to untangle the cord while working on large projects - which is quite common issue

DISADVANTAGES:
- it is not possible to make tassels

THE MACRAME ROPE is a professional cord for making macrame projects. It is triple twisted (3-PLY) rope made from several dozen of recycled yarns. The strands are twisted around each other. It gives wavy fringe, which will add waving texture to your macrame works. The effect of your work will be very subtle. It will make cozy and warm each interior.

There are macrame lovers who comb it, but from what I understand it is more difficult and you have to remember that combed fringes tend to twist. I read that ironing can help, but I did not test it.

ADVANTAGES:
- the loose ends forms pretty, vintage, waving tassels,
- macrame has a very nice texture,
- the cord is soft and pleasant to tangle.

DISADVANTAGES:
-the cord stratifies during tangling, you have to concentrate and be sure that you hold the right ends

THE MACRAME STRING is made from loosely twisted tens of strings. It is mainly used for creation of macrame projects giving it's rustic look due to comb loosely hanging strings. It is very soft in touch. Its ends tends to stratify what can be a cumbersome for beginners, but after combing it gives astonishing effect of fluffy gangs and tassels. It is widely used to make feathers and leafs.

Among the macrame lovers, the most popular cord are those with thickness of 3 and 5 mm. Internet is an infinite source of knowledge. When I am looking at the macrame offered in Europe, I see large variety of materials which are used in braiding of the macrame projects. In United States or Australia, macrame string seems to reign.

In general working with the thin cord takes much more time, but the result, for example the texture of the pattern, is more pronounced, more sophisticated. On the other hand, even the simplest know made with thick cord looks very decorative.