Yes, you are absolutely right, the evidence is good that bobbin lace developed from braiding -- but braiding is also weaving in which a warp thread becomes a weft thread at the edge at each pass. See the very first illustration in the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braid_group. This is also recognized by some textile experts; for example see Landi's The Textile Conservator's Manual in which she says explicitly that bobbin lace is weaving.
I wasn't saying anything about the historical development of bobbin lace. I was describing very specifically the structure and mechanism of bobbin lace, which is weaving with an unattached warp. And of course linen stitch or cloth stitch is even closer to fixed-warp weaving in structure since it is just plain tabby (with two warp threads running simultaneously). I think the history of various technologies has shown that we can get to techniques that are structurally the same via different historical routes. I'm sure the history will be covered in depth, but I believe that understanding the fundamental structure is also important, whatever the history of developing it! Actually I do agree that it makes most sense from a usefulness standpoint to keep all the lace together. Bobbin lace being a form of weaving is just one of those technical anomalies that make the world such a complicated place. Nancy On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 9:56 AM Elena Kanagy-Loux <[email protected]> wrote: > > I think experts in early bobbin lace like Gil Dye can speak to this more > than I can, but evidence points to bobbin lace developing from braiding > techniques, not weaving. > ... > - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
