Modern macramé

Us Londoners are experiencing our first prolonged heatwave for as long as I can remember, and it's great – just as long as you don't need to use public transport, work, move your body for any reason, wear clothes or sleep.

This hammock was my gateway drug back into macramé

I'd rather be in a leafy garden, book in one hand, Pimm's in the other, swinging gently... in a handmade macramé hammock. Ahhh

Think macramé, think plant holders

It's the law that every 70s craft book had to have a chapter on macramé, and I've always been fond of the plant holders and owl wallhangings. But one too many dubious necklaces...

Extreme accessorising

... bags and belts crept in, and this hippie-ish artform was deeply unfashionable for decades. Maybe I've been looking at Pinterest for too long lately, but the results of knotting very long pieces of yarn – especially white, primary-coloured or neon – are suddenly looking quite edgy again.

Anyway, if you'd like to lounge around the garden in your own piece of fibre art, here are all the instructions for the hammock (from The Book of Creative Crafts, Octopus/Book Club 1978) – and macramé virgins will find a basic guide to the main knots here.