In message <[email protected]>, Susan Reishus
<[email protected]> writes
I also asked about learning various lace techniques and mentioned a
few, stating I only knew lace in knitting, crochet, tatting and some
bobbin lace and her comment was that if I knew bobbin lace that was all
there was to know as all the other forms of lace were based upon them.
How to show one's ignorance! Knitting has certainly been around much
longer than bobbin lace, and although it is possible to replicate bobbin
designs in crochet, it is not usual. There are, however, some purists
who refuse to believe that anything other than bobbin lace is lace -
sounds as if she may be one of them.
I am of the opinion that everyone has to start somewhere and probably
most start with little or no knowledge so there are no stupid
questions. Surely people get bored at hearing the same question over
and over when they have been on a list for years, which I understand.
I also believe there are no stupid questions, and having been on the
list since about four months after it started, (I joined in July 95) I
can't remember any question that has been asked to the point of boredom.
Each time a question is asked, different people come up with different
answers, and often we all learn or realise something new (regardless of
how long we have been making lace) from the discussion.
Over time, we have gained list members who are experts in other related
fields - wood turning, thread production, etc who can throw new light
onto subjects that we have questioned and answered in the past, (for
example, the experiments on the effect of S or Z twist of thread on half
stitch in bobbin lace). We have also gained lacemakers from many more
countries than in the earlier days of the list, who again can throw a
different light on the answers to some of the questions. Some questions
in the early days did lead to laughter - we in the UK couldn't
understand why those in the US had no idea what a cake band was for,
after someone asked for a pattern for one - so we got to know each
other's traditions better, and all learned from it.
As one of my students told a local news reporter who came into class,
'there is always something new to learn about lace'. If we don't ask
questions, we don't learn.
--
Jane Partridge
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