I would like to address Lorelei's comment that the lacemakers working by hand were often illiterate. My understanding is quite different. In the English villages where lace was made, many of the children, both boys and girls, were sent to lace schools. Lacemaking was taught, but also basic reading, writing and arithmetic, this being necessary to justify them being called schools. As soon as the boys were old enough to work on the land, they left school, but the girls stayed on to make lace and to learn more about lacemaking and about the three R's. The girls therefore were much better educated than the boys. I also believe that lacemaking was one of the better jobs to have, being clean and relatively well paid. When the girls grew up and married, they were able to continue to make lace at home. Therefore they were benefitted their families in two ways - they were able to earn, while staying at home, and they were able to manage the family finances well, because they had been educated to a higher level than most other women at that time.
But lacemakers of course had to make the same pattern, whether yardage or motifs, over and over again, sometimes for their whole lives. Onle the more skilful could progress to new designs, and, I imagine, earn more. We are so lucky to be able to make lace as a hobby, and try not only whatever pattern we want in our chosen lace, but also any type of lace too. Kathleen In England, where summer seems to have come at last. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
