When we were away the other week we had a wonderful time walking by the harbour in the beautiful port of Soller. Laid out in the sun were huge lengths of fishing nets and sat amongst them was an older man mending his nets. My son shouted out to me, ‘Look Mummy he is knitting like you!’, and in a way he was right, although I wonder if the ancient craft of making fishing nets came slightly before the rather more domestic crochet. But as we stood and watched there were definite similarities in the technique.
There were a few things worth noting. Firstly the size of the nets was truely breathtaking. Secondly, some areas looked a bit tangled… Now I get a bit frustrated when my stash gets ‘mixed up’, and looking at this little collection of yarn was giving me a bit of a nervous twitch. It has been said many times before that ability to make something out of a length of string or yarn, simply by applying a series of knots is an amazing thing. I was reminded of that stood over these precious tools of the trade.
Lastly I would love to say to you that I had the romantic vision to take these images. I did not. Big B saw their beauty. Instead I was watching Little B like a hawk and randomly yelping – ‘Get away from the edge… I said, GET AWAY FROM THE EDGE!’. Ah how proud we are of the British mother abroad.
Finally just to say ‘thank you’ for all the visitors who left me comments about their Royal Wedding Party Hats. It has been great fun. Hope you were part of a fun street party and spend precious time with friends this weekend.
It’s just struck me that ‘knotting’ is very like ‘knitting’. I wonder if that’s where the latter originated from?
I feel so much happier now I undserntad all this. Thanks!
My dad was Norwegian and spent many years on “the boats” as he called it. He taught me to make hammocks with a very large shuttle. He learned the art on “the boats” because their sleeping quarters were hammocks…no real beds or cots as they have today for the men. The hammocks also often needed to be repaired due to the constant rocking of the boat and the fraying of the rope. He also had to learn how to make those seines (fish nets) you show in your pix…