DIY Circular Macramé SUNBURST Ornament | Woven Rope & Fibre Mirror Project

This project came about because I recently got into the craft of macramé, but I wanted to combine it with yarn weaving to add extra colours and textures.

So I ended up making a piece of circular wall art with rope and yarns, and I placed a small mirror in the centre too.

I hope you enjoy this Instructable!

Supplies

- Macramé rope; I used 5mm twisted cotton cord (macramé rope) in a natural beige colour.

- A curtain ring; I used a wooden curtain ring with an outer diameter of 7 cm and an inner diameter of 5 cm.

- A small mirror (optional); I used a circular mirror 5 cm in diameter.

- A variety of yarns; This is a great way of using up scraps of yarns . I used some DK weight yarn but mostly I used super chunky yarns as they stood out more. I also used some lovely multi-coloured yarn made from sari silk for an extra texture.

- Fabric stiffener & paintbrush; You may be able to use a different method to help the fibres hold in place, but I found fabric stiffening liquid to work very well.

- Yarn needle

- A piece of paper

- Ruler/tape measure

- Scissors

- Baking/parchment paper to protect your work surface

- A slicker brush or a fine comb

- Strong clear-drying glue

Step 1: Cow Hitch Knots

First you'll will need to to cut out the lengths of rope you'll need. I personally cut out 18 lengths of rope, each approximately 60 cm long.

Of course you may need more or fewer pieces depending on the rope thickness and the size of curtain ring you're using. You just need enough to cover the curtain ring with knots.

- Take 1 length of rope, fold it in half, and place the loop end under the curtain ring, as shown.

- Then fold the loop down over the curtain ring, from the inside, and bring the ends of the rope up through this loop.

- Pull the ends of the rope downwards to tighten. This is a cow hitch knot.

Step 2: Complete the Knots

Keep adding lengths of rope to the curtain ring (in my case, 18 lengths in total) using cow hitch knots.

Lay the pieces of rope so that they're sticking straight outwards from the ring, ready for the next step.

Step 3: Starting to Weave

I started with some lighter weight yarn (DK/worsted weight) in red to begin the weaving. You'll need to guestimate how much yarn you will need to go once around the circle...I used a length of around 2 metres and that was more than enough.

You need to choose a piece of rope (i.e. a pair of rope strands) to start on, and you'll need to wrap the yarn around the left hand strand of rope first. This is assuming we'll be weaving in an anti-clockwise direction.

- Take the end of the piece of yarn you have cut out, and leave a 'tail' of excess yarn at the beginning of at least 20 cm.

- Wrap the yarn (as shown in the first photo) around the first rope strand, then push that wrap up against the curtain ring. You should have the yarn tail leaving to the left and the long strand of yarn leaving to the right.

- Take the long yarn strand and push a loop of it back under the same rope strand, the the left.

- Feed the long strand of yarn over the rope strand and down through the loop of yarn you have just made. Pull the yarn upwards and towards the curtain ring to tighten.

You will now have the yarn wrapped twice around that rope strand, so now we move on and do the same thing to the next rope strand.

- Take the long strand of yarn under the next rope strand, leaving a loop in the yarn to the left of the rope.

- Take the yarn back over this rope strand, then down through the loop of yarn.

- Tighten and pull the wrapped yarn up to the curtain ring.

- Repeat .

And you just do this all around the curtain ring, so every rope strand has yarn wrapped twice around it.

Once you reach back to where you started, tie the ends of the yarn together at the back, in a double knot.

Step 4: Continue Weaving

I then did exactly the same steps with some yellow DK weight yarn, then some textured sari silk yarn.

You'll want to start and end each piece of yarn at the same point to keep the knots all together at the back.

Step 5: Weave With Chunky Yarn

I then moved onto weaving with yellow super chunky yarn, and then purple super chunky yarn. The chunkier yarns were definitely more effective and easier to handle.

Step 6: Weaving With the Rope

After weaving a round with the sari silk, the yellow, and the purple super chunky yarns again, I wanted to go a round with the white base rope. This means that instead of wrapping the yarn around the rope, you are wrapping the rope around the yarn.

Note that the last round of purple yarn weaving was made with a piece of yarn twice the length as usual , so that I would have enough left to do this next cycle of rope weaving with it as well.

So take this yarn you have left over, and lay a loop of it over the next rope strand that's to the right. The rest of the yarn should still be to the left of this rope strand.

Then fold the end of this rope strand upwards, and feed it down through the loop of yarn you've created.

Pull the rope upwards and towards the curtain ring to tighten.

Repeat until you have rope knots all of the way around.

Step 7: Keep on Weaving

Keep weaving with the yarns for as long as you like. I did another round of purple yarn*, sari silk yarn, yellow yarn, and then purple yarn again.

*Make sure you leave that previous round of white rope knots exposed, rather than tightening the yarn so much it covers these up.

Step 8: Create the Outer Braid of Rope

To finish off the circle with an attractive border of rope, I then created knots all of the way around using only the rope.

So take a strand of rope and lay a loop of it over the middle of the rope strand to the right of it. I'll refer to the looped strand on the left as A, and the rope strand underneath, which remains straight, as B.

Take the end of A and take it underneath B, and up through the loop to the right of B.

Keep B still and pull Aupwards and towards the curtain ring to tighten.

Then you just repeat this all of the way around. When you have finished, don't tie any ends of rope together at the back, like you did with the yarns.

I then did one more round with the rope strands; this time just doing single knots.

So take a pair of rope strands that are next to each other and tie them in a single knot. Then do the same with the next pair of strands, and then the next, and so on all of the way around.

Step 9: Neaten Up the Back

You will have amassed a lot of knotted yarn tails at the back of the ornament, so now is the time to cut off the excess and neaten it up a bit.

I also took some strong clear-drying glue (all-purpose or fabric glue), and used it to stick the ends of the yarn that are left onto the back of the woven areas. This was just to help them lie flatter.

And I added a little glue to the back of the outer braid of rope too, just to help prevent any unravelling happening.

Leave to dry.

Step 10: Brush Out the Rope

To give the rope a fluffy appearance at the ends, first unravel each piece of rope with your hands, simply by untwisting them and separating the individual strands.

Then take a slicker brush or a fine comb and brush all of the strands to separate them even further.

Then trim the ends of the strands to neaten them up a bit. I used a piece of paper to help me cut the strands approximately the same length.

Note that we will be trimming these strands again so don't cut them too short at this point; just a trim to neaten them up.

Step 11: One Last Round of Knots

Another round of single knots, this time with the now-fluffy rope.

Step 12: Add the Mirror

Glue the mirror to the back of the curtain ring, right in the centre. Leave to dry.

Step 13: Stiffen the Rope Strands

In order to display this ornament on the wall without the rope strands drooping down, you will need to use liquid fabric stiffener on the fibres. (Or you could come up with another method of supporting the strands.)

Put some baking/parchment paper down to protect your work surface, and place the ornament on top. Make sure you brush the rope strands so that they are neat and point straight outwards from the centre; the position the strands are in now is how they will stay once they dry.

I put some fabric stiffener in a small plastic container and then used a cheap paintbrush to brush it onto the fibres around the outside, from the rope braid outwards.

You want all of these fibres to be saturated so make sure you put enough on.

Then leave to dry.

Step 14: Cut to Size & Hang Up

I had a wire wreath from that just happened to be the size I wanted so I used that as my cutting guide. You can instead cut out a circle of paper to use as a guide.

Use sharp scissors to cut all of the outer rope strands to the same length.

Then use a strand of yarn and a yarn needle to add a hanging loop to the top. I fed each end of the yarn loop down through knots at the back of the ornament, and knotted them in place.