Well, I can't claim to be an expert on anybody's needlelace but my
own, and even then it's a stretch. Still...as I've been making NL for
at least half a century (and even won prizes for some of it, imagine
that!), I am moved to express an opinion and even describe how I got
to it:
Yes, I do think, Brenda, that your lovely mat is machinemade. I can't
think that a human lacemaker, no matter how skillful, could produce a
cordonnet of those dimensions without at least microscopic variations
in the spacing of the buttonhole stitches that cover the cordonnet.
There are a number of influences on the human hand and wrist that the
machine is not subject to. For instance, a handmade cordonnet will be
using up lengths of thread that are about 15" or if the lacemaker is
very naughty and willful, maybe 20" long. The ending-off and the
joining-on, no matter how beautifully executed, are going to produce
tiny changes in rhythm, if only because the length of thread, nearing
its end and twisted and untwisted many times in the course of the
work, is going to be somewhat more tightly plied by the time we get
to the end of the 15-20 inches than it was at the beginning; whereas
the machine doesn't have to cope with joins for maybe a thousand
inches or more. Another thing is changes in finger tension and muscle
tension over a period of an hour or two of steady stitching. Those
changes will produce tiny changes in stitch tension! whereas the
machine can go on for hours and hours without having to stop and
stretch and relax and go get a glass of water, etc. etc.
Looking at your mat, Brenda, I can just see that machine sawing away
in a blissful monotony, cloning perfection by the yard!
Aurelia
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