Page 377 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

370 History and Science of Knots

and the spaces filled with lattice-design stitches, as in filet-lacis. The contrast
of texture and the strong geometric designs are ideally suited to the even-weave
linen that is traditionally used as ground, while the remoteness of Hardanger
Fjord may be the reason that the craft has been preserved unchanged. The
Fabric of the Age was Indian cotton muslin-fine as silk, (the Indian legends
tell of sari-lengths which may be folded into a walnut shell), with the advantage
of being easy to wash. These quality fabrics were made more accessible when
the spun cotton was imported to Britain for weaving; the `India muslins' so
produced were often `sprigged' with little sprays of flowers dotted over them in
tamboured chains. These light, floral designs were frequently complemented by
the embroidered laces: pulled work with raised stitching, drawn-thread work
with fine darning, fine embroidery with eyelets and needlepoint fillings, and
the like. Once the Spinning Jenny and Spinning Mule machines were invented,
it proved faster to import cotton in raw bales, the machine-spun thread was
more even, and prices were brought down.
One of the after-effects of the Court Dress (grand habit) introduced by
Louis XIV was that clothing fell into three distinct categories for the rich:
court-, town- and un-dress. At this time, cotton was generally used for undress
(informal attire), town dress often used cotton or wool-cotton unions, and
white muslin with rich silk was the fashion for court. The silk industry at Lyons
declined with the French Court's craze for the `shepherdess' look so favoured by
Marie Antoinette, and the lighter cotton muslin took over completely. Shawls,
scarves and stoles became necessary to the fashionable wardrobe: and for those
who could not afford `real' (bobbin) lace accessories, the netted and knotted
laces formed a cheaper substitute. Long scarves and stoles were often made
in simple macrame techniques, relying upon the tinsel in the thread to give
richness; the fringes for these scarves were often 20-25 cm in length, giving
maximum effect for minimum effort. Square and triangular shawls, however,
were generally netted (as were some stoles and scarves) again with deep fringes.
These netted pieces were generally worked in the plain mesh, with variations in
gauge-size round the borders, or clusters of loops to give interest. Filet-lacis as
such, however was not used on shawls. Sometimes, too, pieces of embroidered
silk with a deeply fringed macrame border were used for shawls. These became
more fashionable as Napoleon Bonaparte revived the silk industry of France.
Knotting and fringing (macrame) continued to be favourite domestic
crafts; the indefatigable Mrs Delaney wrote in a letter that she had completed
the trims for a set of chairs, and was about to begin work on bed curtains to
match. Jane Austen mentions netting, and in `Sense and Sensibility' adds in
an aside that the French prisoners-of-war made workboxes for sale to offset
their living costs. The taste for fine furniture with matched veneers resulted
in a need for cloths to protect the grain of the wood, and netted pieces were
very popular for this purpose since they allowed the pattern of the veneer to