I haven't a reliable clue (and I wasn't there then), but it seems to
me possible (likely?) that needle lace and bobbin lace may have
evolved out of sewing and weaving techniques, respectively...which,
in turn, might have had to do with the types of grasses and fibers
available. Knotting would likely have grown out of a need to connect
short lengths of grass; twisting and plaiting out of a need to
strengthen fragile fibers. And (I imagine) the main reason that silk
got to be so fantastically valuable may well have had to do with the
practically endless length of its fiber (no need to knot, etc)...
dream on, Aurelia
there
are two types of Egyptian lace found in the tombs. The first is knotted from
which the filet lace is developed (and I would have thought that this type of
"lace" would have evolved from fishing nets) and the twisted type such as we
are talking about, which she thought was likely to be the origin of bobbin
lace.
For this to be true, it would seem to me that some sort of evolution in situ
should be able to be traced. For example, if sprang was made in Scandinavia
and Southern US, but bobbin lace evolved in Italy with no cross pollination, I
would have thought they evolved separately.
But if sprang had been made in Southern Europe then I could see that lateral
thinking could have taken place by people really familiar with the first
technique "Do we really need these threads held top and bottom, or
could we manage
them some other way".
And I also thought the earliest laces were plaited ones imitating needle lace
which don't have a lot of similarity to sprang lace.
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