This is one of those projects that looks really complicated but isn't. Pinky swear. It took me a while, but everything takes me a while. I have two young boys and no less than fifteen projects going at once so ya, that doesn't mean a single thing. Also, I am constantly fighting off said small boys whenever I'm working on a project that has cool dangly bits, and most of the time I'm on the losing end so I have to redo most steps fourteen times anyhow. Still, this project was easy. Totally serious... says the gal who felt like a rock star when she used the sewing machine to do a straight hem on some curtains for the first time a few months ago. I am certainly no master of the fiber arts, if you know what I mean, and I rocked this baby out easy as can be. So you guys can totally do this! Yahoo!
Oh, and I fully found most of the instructions for this project on an amazingly cool retro 'looking' site (that isn't actually retro at all I don't think) I stumbled upon when I was looking for a project to tackle, so this isn't a design of my creation. I just modified it a bit for my purposes, found additional resources for further explanation when I needed a little dumbing down, and so that I wouldn't need to move into a larger house to accommodate this sucker. Have you seen my crazy plant, it's out of control. She likes her new digs apparently, because I'm fairly certain she grew 6 inches since I put her crazy plant body in this thing. If she keeps up at this pace, I'm going to have to do some minor surgery on either her or the macrame if I want to keep the bird from chewing on her luscious tendrils. Since I'm humbled by the macrame, it's likely going to be her? Eek.
Materials:
Nylon Cord
4" Ring
2" Ring
Pins are helpful but optional
Lightweight Planter about 10" or so. Metal or plastic would be a good choice.
Indoor Hanging Plant
Ceiling Hook
This project is based on the lace planter pattern and has modifications to allow for the fact that I don't have I have small children who I would prefer to keep alive for just a bit longer if possible, should they decide to go after one of these gorgeous tendrils. It would be good if they were a little less likely to pull this down onto themselves, hence the fact that I have shortened the overall length of this quite a bit. Also, I have at least accounted for the fact that should they succeed in pulling this down somehow, my pot is lightweight and so, it wouldn't actually kill either of them and would most likely just give them a good dent or bump for a bit, which seems to be an everyday occurrence for the bird these days anyhow.
Feel Free to follow along on her pattern, but I will outline the steps below since I have modified the dimensions and number of knots for each step, but I will leave the knot typing to her genius. I am also linking to the specific knot making instructions as the steps go along so you don't have to scroll up and down to figure it out. I made a pictorial similar to hers so that you can see where my knots fall in comparison to hers since hers is good and mine is mediocre at best, this way you will recognize what yours might look like if you have never done this before.
Step 1: Cut 12 cords to 5 yards long each. Cut 1 cord to 30 inches long. Using a lighter or an small open flame and carefully place your cut ends into the heat until they melt enough to not unravel. You will know this has happened when you see it. Alternatively, if you don't want to actually melt the cord, you can simply light a candle and dip the cut end into the melty wet wax that pools just under the flame and give the end a nice wax coating. Either will work nicely. I did both (first melt, then wax coat), and found myself to enjoy the melting portion a little bit more than I care to admit... ahem.
Step 2: Fold the 5-yard cords in half and pass them through the 2 inch ring. Make sure they are even. Take your 30 inch cord and make a Wrapped Knot around them that measures 1 1/2 inches long.
Step 3: Place the cords inside the 4 inch ring, and hold the ring (or set the ring down on the counter) so it rests 4 inches below the Wrapped Knot. Attach each cord individually to your ring with a Double Half Hitch. This ends up being kind of a wrap, loop, pull kind of motion and goes really quickly.
Step 4: Move down 1 inch and tie 4 rows of Alternating Square Knots. Each knot should have 2 working cords and 2 filler cords.
Step 5: Divide the cords into 6 groups of four. Tie 3 Square Knots in each group, creating 6 individual sennits (a sennit is one square knot after another forming a chain). Make sure the bottoms of these line up. 
Step 6: Alternate the cords, by choosing two cords from one sennit, and two from the one next to it. This is like what you did above with the Alternating Square Knots. Move down 2 1/2 inches. Tie 5 Square Knots with each group of four strands.
Step 7: Alternate the cords again, and move down 5 inches. Tie 7 Square Knots in each group of four cords.
Step 8: Alternate the cords again and move down 7 inches. Tie one Square Knot in each group of cords. Try and line these knots line up, but don't stress if they don't, I'm living proof of that it won't kill your project or your plant, oops.
Step 9: Pull all your cords together and set your pot inside on top of this gather, to make sure you like how it fits. If you do, take two of the cords and tie a tight Square Knot around all of the other cords, so it sits just under your pot.
Step 10: Divide the cords into two groups of 12. In each group, tie 7 Square Knots, use two working cords and 10 filler cords for each group. Then combine the working cords of both sennits and use them to tie a tight Square Knot around all the others. The four cords work together as if they were two cords.
Apply glue to this knot and allow it to dry completely before you hang this baby up.
See, wasn't that easier than you thought it would be? And that was a more complicated planter as far as easy but beautiful macrame planters go. Thank goodness for sites like the one I found this pattern on and all of the instructions for the knots. Otherwise nubs like me would be up a creek, right?
Lace Pattern // Wrapped Knot // Double Half Hitch // Alternating Square Knots // Square Knot
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