On Sep 26, 2004, at 19:57, Bev Walker wrote:
Tamara wrote:
Flat "shoelace" tape can also be made with bobbins, and look exactly as
3-pr. Flanders for instance. If the tape is used with needle-made fillings, would this particular tape necessarily have been made with bobbins (just wondering)?
Not necessarily, no. But... Years, and years, and years ago, when I was 18, I figured out a way of plaiting/weaving strands of cord, to make patterned, 2- or 3-coloured, sash-belts. I'd tie the ends of the cord to the back of a chair in a particular colour-order, plant my feet on the cross-piece at the bottom to keep the chair in place, and off I'd go. Looking back, I now realise that what I was doing was weaving flat braids, such as described in Devon's posting and/or in Cook's "carrying pairs", though I was moving one strand at a time to begin with. But I was weaving them without any kind of "handle" (bobbin), while working with anywhere from 10 to 30 strands, each 150cm (59") long.
It was a major pain, especially at the beginning of each piece. I ended up making a little "clew" out of each strand, to cut down on the confusion, and the effort of pulling each strand through all the others. If I'd had enough sense to wind each strand on a piece of wood, and fasten it with a slip knot... It would have made the entire process even simpler, and I could have made a lot more friends happy...
As a matter of fact, during the lecture that Lenka Suchanek gave at the Lace Museum this past March, she speculated that bobbin lace might have sprung from just such a problem: two few hands, and too long pieces of threads, to keep them in proper order and easily manageable. I just didn't have enough gumption to push the idea to its true conclusion...
Aside: it could be argued that the pillow/bobbins setup of BL is 'a loom'
- as the device required to produce the textile. But I'm not arguing ;)
I've often heard BL compared to weaving, but don't see the similiarity myself. Possibly, because I've never done any weaving (except on those little looms, designed for kids). The little bit of weaving I'd seen done by others... Both ends of each "passive" (warp) were fixed in place during the construction, not just one. And only one "worker" (weft) travelled, not two, even in "cloth stitch". For someone wiht as serious "geometric deficiency" as mine, this meant (and still means) a whole different ball game...
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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