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Breezy & Knotical: DIY Fisherman’s net lanterns

Woman! I wish I could immediately talk to you about this beautiful fisherman’s net DIY tutorial and how super cool it looks but man am I a slave of my feelings. How do these websites do it? Jump straight into “here’s what you need to know” in under 20 words? 20 words would be me apologizing for my digressions. 20 words would be 1 10th of P.S note. Haha, I cannot write to the point- like ever- but it’s alright. This is where we feel free and beautiful, a lot like how this ignored jute rope must be feeling right about now.

P.S. Would you believe if I told you that its 12:22 pm on a work day and I took a power nap already? I am now tucking into some homemade “Drinking chocolate” old fashioned cake and sipping on some Ceylon tea. This lockdown has made things all haywire irrespective of putting myself through a very charted schedule. Cant recall at which point it went down the drain. But then again, it has also brought in us (back) the creative spirit that we so found wanting. You’ll agree with me that life had become too fast, too mechanical, too materialistic before we were forced to stay home…and look where it got us.

That long pending Fisherman’s net DIY lantern has finally happened.

It’s no news that I am a big banana for all things coastal and nautical and a few of these fisherman’s net lantern for the home was on my list. But somehow, because it’s sort of easy, I always pushed it to a “time when I’m free”. Thankfully, one evening I found myself in such a spot. I thought hard and figured I have absolutely nothing to do. Actually I did have one thing that I could have done but I just ignored it and labeled it in my head as “not important”. So having that “free time” finally, I brought out the jute rope and the big jar I bought for god knows what and turned it into that knotical centerpiece of my dreams. Haha. Bonus is, it takes about 15 minutes.

So here’s how a fisherman’s net lantern is done

You’ll need:

A glass jar – tall or short but with a wide mouth so you can easily keep the tealight inside.

Jute rope. Mine were really weird and uneven. I’d suggest buying a medium jute yarn for really nice even knots but if you have regular grocery store ones, that’ll also do.

Length: Measure the length of your jar, add 10 cm to it and double it.

I used 6 strands of rope for the weaving and 1 x 30 cm strand for the mouth

A scissor.

Fevicol or hot glue gun

For demonstration purpose, I am knotting a plain bottle…which is also a great idea to give old bottles a bit of new life.

First, tie a noose. Keep it slightly loose so the ropes can go in comfortable. But not too loose that it slacks. Come on, you know what I mean.

Next, tie the ropes to the noose in such a fashion. Basically you run the loop side of the rope through the noose and bring in the free end of the ropes from inside the loop to make a knot. This is a classic “Lark’s head Knot” and is used extensively in macrame.

http://www.macramelovers.com/blog/how-to-macrame/macrame-larks-head-knot/

Continue with all 6 strands.

Now, taking the right strand of each, knot it with the left strand that’s adjacent to it. We are making a webbed pattern so make sure the knots are at same height. Just a simple basic knot where you pull in the free of the rope on itself to make a tight knot. This is called an “overhand knot”- the most simple knotting pattern that we are all aware of. See diagram below. Consider blue and green and your adjacent strands

https://www.netknots.com/rope_knots/overhand-bend

Continue till the bottom leaving about 10 cm rope.

Now, reverse the bottle, take strands from the opposite sides and tie tightly. Ideally, you’ll want to do this on the sides, near the rim and not below but my ropes were not enough. I didn’t measure. Haha.

See how most of the knots sit near the rim? That’s how it should be. I fell short on one and had to tie in the center. Not a good idea. But incase that happens, just flatten it a bit.

If you are doing a lantern, take a length of the same rope, wound it around the mouth and glue the end with fevicol or hot glue gun.

Your gorgeous knotical fisherman’s net lantern or bottle is now ready! Wuhhooo. So easy and yet soooo gorgeous. I am looking for a few frosted bottles to try these on and I cant wait now that Amazon has started non-essential delivery. How pretty will a bunch of them look, hung from our wisteria in the balcony. Right?

That’s how I styled it- on our dining with a few books and a hydrangea. And I am so excited to see how you all style it too! You know where to tag me…!

Alrighto! Tea time.

Rukmini

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