I’ve had this 500-foot spool of gorgeous mustard rope hiding in my craft closet. I thought maybe I would get 3 or 4 projects out of the rope, but I ended up choosing a 400+ foot market bag project. Look at this beaut!

This project was from Modern Macrame by Emily Katz.* I cut out all the lengths of rope*, attached to my feet, and got to knotting. I didn’t use the suggested rope (jute) so partway through I realized I had to adapt the pattern slightly and add an additional 8 strands to my project. It’s such a pain to undo knots, but it made sense for this project otherwise I would have had major gaps in the bag for more falling out potential.

There were so many new-to-me macrame techniques in this project. I learned how to create a bag opening and strap, how to connect two panels (the front and the back of the bag), and a crossing technique to add dimension to two sinnets of square knots.

My favorite part in creating this piece was making the strap – a series of square knots 31 inches long!

After many square knots and hair cut (I used painters tape to help guide my cut), the final piece measured in at 18″ x 36″ with the strap and fringe, and it weighs ~3 pounds.

I feel like brushing out the fringe helps secure the bottom knots a little bit more so I used a pet brush* to loosen up the rope. Side note: Who else thinks that human brushes should come with the cool self-cleaning option as pet brushes do?

Next, I stress test it at the market!

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