<<And I have heard it called "hand loomed" even though it has nothing to do with weaving. sigh.>>
This has come up before - "hand loomed" comes from the 18/19c terminology for knitting frames (the industrial predecessor of the home knitting machine) - the frames used from the mid 17 c on for knitting stockings were known as knitting looms and sock looms, and the men who operated them were known as stocking weavers. Back then, words commonly had more than one meaning (Shakespeare in particular made up a lot of new words), and when the frame was improved enough to become popular, it's not surprising it was given a common name that related to something most people were familiar with. 18c stocking frames look a lot like looms - they're built on the same kind of heavy wooden frame, with a seat. To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
