SIMPLE BUNTING

Strings of bunting are such a sweet accessory and they can be used in so many ways, as a beautiful accent for nursery or a child’s room, to decorate a baby shower, or simply to adorn the shelves, walls and windows of your home. This simple bunting has a length of eleven flags giving you plenty of opportunity to perfect the decreasing square knot pattern.

MATERIALS:

• 72.4m (237¹⁄₂ft) length of 5mm (¹⁄₄in) rope

KNOTS & TECHNIQUES:

• Overhand Knot
• Reverse Lark’s Head Knot
• Square Knot
• Decreasing Square Knot Pattern
• Diagonal Double Half Hitch
• Numbering Cords
• Fraying

PREPARATION:

• Cut eighty-eight 80cm (31¹⁄₂in) lengths of 5mm (¹⁄₄in) rope
• Cut one 2m (6¹⁄₂ft) length of 5mm (¹⁄₄in) rope

Method

1. Tie an overhand knot (see Overhand Knot) at each end of the 2m (6¹⁄₂ft) length of rope to prevent it from fraying. This will become your holding cord (see Knotting Terminology). We have found that the best way to secure the holding cord ready to begin work is to tie it between the sides of a clothes rack/rail and to make sure that the holding cord is tight and straight. Alternatively, you could secure it to a flat surface such as a wall or a table using a strong adhesive tape.
2. You are now going to start tying your first flag at the centre of the holding cord: mount eight of the 80cm (31¹⁄₂in) lengths of rope onto the holding cord using reverse lark’s head knots (see Reverse Lark’s Head Knot). The width of the mounted rope should be 10cm (4in).
3. Tie a row of four square knots (see Square Knot) directly beneath the holding cord.
4. Continue to tie rows of square knots in a decreasing square knot pattern (see Decreasing Square Knot Pattern) to finish with a single square knot in the last row.
5. Number the cords 1 to 16 (see Numbering Cords). Make cord 1 a holding cord: bring it down diagonally left to right along the edge of the decreasing square knot pattern to the centre point and tie diagonal double half hitches (see Half Hitch Knots) with cords 2–8.
6. Make cord 16 a holding cord; bring it down diagonally right to left along the edge of the decreasing square knot pattern to the centre point and tie diagonal double half hitches with cords 9–15.
7. Tie cords 1 and 16 together with a double overhand knot (see Overhand Knot) to complete one flag.
8. Repeat steps 2–7 to make another ten flags, five to each side of the first (centre) flag, leaving a space of 4cm (1¹⁄₂in) on the holding cord in between each flag.
9. Trim the cords to the desired length and fray (see Fraying).