Dear Erica and other Friends,
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love lace and loathe maths... but they came together yesterday.
Many thanks for this delightful tale. I have to say I spent most of my adult life trying to convince my own Mother what a good mathematician she was. She never did believe me, despite the fact that she was using quite complex maths daily in a variety of crafts.
One of our favourite "games" when us 5 were kids was to get out Mum's Enid Gilchrist sewing pattern book and draft the patterns on to pieces of paper. At first we just made them the size they were, coloured them up, glued them together and then dressed our dolls etc. Later it was Mum (that dumb mathematician) who taught is the quit complex task of enlarging these draughts to whatever size we wanted.
I also recall showing Mum (when I was in my late 20s) how to use Pythagorus' Theorem in the design of a raglan sleeve top for a jumper (pullover, sweater, whatever). She'd never heard of it and thought it was just magic!!
However, with bobbin lace making, I find there is perhaps much more benefit to be gained from a knowledge of maths than many other crafts. For instance, just think of the wonderful ways in which we use spirals, squares, circles, triangles (tiny in grounds and larger in overall designs). If you wanted to, you could get into all sorts of progressions to work out the throwing out of pairs, or indeed introducing new ones.
I just can't help myself, but when I make lace, I am thinking maths all the time, and counting, counting, counting.
David in Ballarat - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
