The Square Knot With Hemp and Paper Beads

There is a renewed interest in hemp, and I had to dig up my book on hemp and bead jewelry.  The square knot is the most basic macrame knots.  The hemp necklace with paper beads is meant to be worn high up on the neck as a choker.  I made this necklace with small round beads and a bigger round bead in the center of the flower.

I have found a site that has good visuals on the basic square knots, you can find it here.

For this project, you need one 2 1/2 yards of hemp (your knotting cords) the size that would fit the hole of your bead, and a shorter one about 24 inches (your filler cord or your middle cord).

With the working cord tie and overhand knot and form a loop that is big enough for your closure knot.

With the filler cord take about 5 inches and fold it forming a loop and hold it against the working cords with the loop.

You take the short end of the filler cord and start wrapping it around all the cords.

You will pull the cords to close the loop on the filler cords until you have one that looks like this.

You will then tape it down to a table so you can start braiding (just like braiding hair) the first 3 inches of the necklace.

You start your square knot ending  with the filler cord (shorter cord) in the middle, so that you have two long cords on your left and on your right.  You would alternate between the left and the right cords with this pattern:  L cord over filler cord and under R cord, take R cord over L cord and under filler cord, then pull tight.

And then, you do the same thing, with the R cord over the filler cord, then take the L cord over the R cord and under the filler cord then pull tight.  You will alternate doing this with the left and right cords and you will end up with the square knots.

I added a paper bead every 5 or 6 square knots.

After three paper beads and when you are at the center of your necklace, I added three paper beads on both the right and left strings and in the center I added a tiny paper bead, a large round bead and a tiny paper bead.

And then, you continue and finish the other side, ending with two knots (one knot over the other) as your button closure.

Here’s your finished paper bead necklace!