Macramé: The Art of Creative Knotting (Book Review).

The book that started it all (published in 1967). When Virginia Harvey wrote this book, she remarked that macramé was almost a lost art...

Today, thanks to Mrs. Harvey, there are few people who have never heard of macramé. Although many books on macramé have been published following the success of Macramé: The Art of Creative Knotting, this remains the favorite guide of experienced craftsmen and beginners alike. It offers the clearest, liveliest, and best instructions for doing macramé. It discuss tools and materials, shows, step-by-step, how to tie the basic knots and combine them, and gives detailed information on planning and executing designs, together with suggestions for projects. More than 270 photographs and diagrams illustrate the text. The basic method of making macramé is incredibly simple: just two different knots are the key to achieving the intricate patterns. It is an expressive technique with no hard and fast rules and very few limitations. The variety of designs possible is bounded only by the individual worker's imagination; the multitude of items that can be fashioned range from the practical to the purely decorative. The materials needed are inexpensive and easily available; very little space is required—small projects can be carried in a pocket. If you have always wanted to try macramé but have never gotten past Step 1, or if the predetermined patterns of kits have failed to excite you, now you can learn from the most experienced and creative teacher how easy and fun it really is!

Virginia Isham Harvey is editor and publisher of a new quarterly, Threads in Action, which she undertook as a result of the overwhelming and continuing response to her first book, Macramé: The Art of Creative Knotting. However, she has many other commitments. Curator and Preparator of the Costume and Textile Study Collection of the School of Horne Economics at the University of Washington since 1958, she also contributes to a number of publications, such as Museum News (Journal of American Association of Museums) and Hand-weaver and Craftsman, and is a member and past president of the SeattleWeavers' Guild and a member of the Northwest DesignerCraftsmen. She has written a second book, Color and Design in Macramé, and is already at work on a book in a new craft medium. For a number of years Mrs. Harvey taught weaving and maintained a studio where she produced handwoven fabrics on commission. She has exhibited her handwoven and knotted fabrics in important regional and national competitive craft exhibitions, such as the Northwest Craftsmen Exhibition; Designer Craftsman of the West; Frye Museum: Pacific Northwest Arts and Crafts Fair; Mills College; Northwest Craftsmen USA; Museum of Contemporary Crafts. New York (where she was given a one-man show): and the Wichita National Competition. In these exhibits, she has garnered an impressive number of honors and awards.