Mark almost a hundred in a most excellent handicraft (7)
I believe the answer is:
macrame
'handicraft' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'mark almost a hundred in a most excellent' is the wordplay.
'almost' means to remove the last letter (almost the whole word is kept).
'a hundred' becomes 'C' (Roman numeral).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'most excellent' becomes 'me' (this could be a standard abbreviation I've not previously seen).
'mark' with its final letter removed is 'mar'.
'mar' going around 'c' is 'macr'.
'macr'+'a'+'me'='MACRAME'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for macrame that I've seen before include "Decorative knotted work" , "Cord-knotting craft" , "Ornamental work of knotted cord" , "knotty work!" , "Knotted thread work" .)