Reading a fascinating book called The Fabric Of Civilization by Virginia Postrel.

I’m only about half way through this but she is making a very good case that fabric has driven a huge number of the technological advances that we study as the industrial revolution, the age of machines, and world economies.

She suggests that the invention of string, then thread then cloth is a natural progression alongside all the usual progressive advances we study, and in fact, thread ,cloth then bolts of fabric both woven and knitted has built the world that we know today.

This brief summary doesn’t of course do the book justice, so if you are at all interested,I hope you will seek this out. It is an interesting alternate view of the history with which we are more familiar .

Being a textile person I think she is right. I have read other books that talk about world textiles and have been amazed at the similarities that exist between patterns.

Maybe this is truly the thread that binds us!