On May 28, 2005, at 11:06, Antje González wrote:
Very interesting your story. This reminds me of a girl in my daughters
class, exactly 13 years ago. She was a portuguese gipsy. And so, her
mother
used to take her to school with a very long thick and black braid (much
longer than her waist!). It was a four strand braid, adorned with
flowers.
Really astonishing. I asked this mother to teach me how to make it,
because
I only knew how to make the classical 3 strand braid. And she did show
me.
Starting to learn how to make braids in bobbin lace reminded me of this
braid. But... it was not made the same way we make a braid: the twist
of the
two pairs (of hair strands) was made from the outside to the inside;
then a
cross of the two inner pairs.
That *is* interesting... If you "twist" both pairs from outside in (ie,
you twist the rh pr, but cross the lh pr), then your center cross is
likely to be "off"; it'll go - l to r - over two threads instead of one
over, one under... I've tried to reproduce this on my practice pillow
(which I use while writing to Arachne), but the thread is too fine (and
the motions too new - I keep making mistakes <g>) to see what the
result looks like.
And, of course, I have no idea *how* my little school-friend moved the
4 strands... When she did it on other heads, I paid no attention (I had
been told, repeatedly, to stay away from all manual labour; I was
expected to stick to mental exercises <g>); when she did it on my own
head, I couldn't see what the results were (I didn't develop "eyes in
the back of my head" until I started teaching <g>)...
I know my friend was not a Gypsy; there was not a single Gypsy in our
school, though there seemed to be many in the streets and parks...
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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