At 08:46 AM 10/9/04 +0100, Linda Walton wrote: >Probably since shortly after the time I started making lace, I have heard >that early lacemakers used fishbones for pins. But I can't imagine any of >those little rib-type bones being strong enough to be pushed into a straw >pillow, nor taking the strain of tensioned linen thread. This puzzle has >always irritated me.
The story started as an attempt to explain the name "bone lace". Another name for bone lace was "stick lace". If you read a lot of very old[1] books, as I did when growing up, the use of "bone" for small stick-shaped objects doesn't seem to require any explanation. -- Joy Beeson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where it's sunny again after one damp day. [1] librarians had not yet developed the habit of trashing everything that goes six months without being checked out -- even when the *reason* it hasn't been checked out is that it's a reference book and doesn't circulate! - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
