It seems to me that lacemaking provides many things to many people. Small children can learn simple Torchon patterns quite easily. Adults with no particular math skills may make lace their whole lives without ever finding a need to go dig out their trig tables (yes, I know that dates me, but you know what I mean). However lacemaking is the only craft I’ve every participated in where, at the advanced levels, I keep running into engineers and math whizzes and rocket scientists. Honestly! Rocket scientists! Well, I suppose they have to do something with their spare time.
My anecdote about this, is a lacemaker I know, a math whiz. Many people have problems with the Flanders ground, and for various reasons Flanders is often considered advanced. She asked “what is Flanders Ground”, took one look at a picture, said “right you are” and proceeded to start making perfect Flanders. I think it is that intuitive understanding that leads these people into lacemaking and makes the more complex laces more desirable for them. Now, before everybody goes ballistic - I am not saying that you can’t make Flanders or Binche or any other of the more advanced laces if you don’t have good math skills. I’m just saying that people who do have good math skills may be drawn to that type of lace. Adele West Vancouver, BC (west coast of Canada)' 18, at 9:50 AM, Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi <shg...@mail.harvard.edu> wrote: > > Friends > > Both Devon and Alex Stillwell have pointed out to me that some of the > finest lacemakers are mathematicians and computer engineers. It makes > intuitive sense. > I have a math learning disability so I wouldn't be able to follow more than > superficially, but allowing for that, does anyone have any anecdotes or > observations that would be good to know about? > > I ought to mention that poor old Bobby is endlessly queried -- tacitly as > well as openly -- if he is gay. One of the themes I am exploring is what > appears to be the problem of Bobby's masculinity. Knowing something about > math/IT lacemakers (if there were in the 1980s, mind you), would be an > interesting wrinkle since in the United States, math and computers are > coded as masculine activities. > > (The latter is not a universal gender-category. In Iran, for example, math - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
