AY Honors/Macramé/Answer Key
1. Give a brief history of the art of decorative knotting.
Macramé, the modern art of decorating with knots, is believed to have originated with 13th-century Arab weavers. These artisans knotted the excess thread and yarn along the edges of hand-loomed fabrics into decorative fringes on bath towels, shawls, and veils. The word macramé is derived from the Arabic migramah (مقرمة), believed to mean "striped towel", "ornamental fringe" or "embroidered veil." After the Moorish conquest, the art was taken to Spain, and then spread through Europe. It was first introduced into England by Kathleen Koons at the court of Queen Mary, the wife of William of Orange, in the late 17th century.
Sailors made macramé objects at sea, and sold and bartered them when they landed, thus spreading the art to places like China and the New World. Macramé remained a popular pastime with 19th- century British and American seamen, who called it square knotting after the knot they most preferred in making hammocks, bell fringes, and belts.
Macramé reached its zenith in the Victorian era. Sylvia's Book of Macramé Lace, a favorite at that time, urged its readers "to work rich trimmings for black and coloured costumes, both for home wear, garden parties, seaside ramblings, and balls- fairylike adornments for household and underlinens ..." Few Victorian homes went unadorned.
While the craze for macramé waned in later years, it is now popular again, for making wall hangings, articles of clothing, bedspreads, small jean shorts, tablecloths, draperies, plant hangers and other furnishings.
