Interlacing Without Erasing
In 1972, Mark Van Stone had a fellowship grant to crawl around in libraries in England and Ireland (yes, I know, but he’s a fine fellow really). He had access to manuscripts that weren’t necessarily the pretty ones that go on display to the public, and he learned a valuable lesson, namely that there were lazy and sloppy scribes in the Middle Ages, and often they can teach us more than their tidy colleagues. Melinda Sherbring, known in the SCA as Eowyn Amberdrake, learned the technique Mark calls “Interlacing Without Erasing” and brought it to the SCA via an article in TI #53 which was eventually printed in the Knowne World Handbook. I heartily recommend picking up a copy, as well as any books by Mark Van Stone.
Seeing Spots Before Your Eyes
Mark noticed that the space between the ribbons in most Celtic knotwork is inked black or painted over (or carved out in woodworking pieces), which got him curious enough to look at some sloppier and/or unfinished work. What should he discover, but a small dot appearing at every “intersection” between ribbons! By working backward from white space, he discovered a method that produces perfect knotwork without losing your mind, though you will have to see spots before your eyes.
Start out by filling the space you eventually want to fill with knotwork with a regular grid of dots (figure 1), then place a dot in the center of each “square” between the dots, as though you were copying the design of five pips on a die (figure 2):
Figure 1 Figure 2
(Note: How densely you place the knots will dictate how wide your knotwork ribbon will be. )
You now have a box of “diamonds”; pick any diamond, preferably not on an edge, and draw two parallel lines either from lower left to upper right or vice versa (figure 3). This is the beginning of your ribbon. Now, working out from that first diamond, draw ribbon sections at right angles to your first section (figure 4). Fill the available space with ribbon pieces in every complete diamond, leaving the partial diamonds for the edges (figure 5). Now, starting at one corner, close the ribbon with a loop. Once you close the first one, the “partner” for each successive raw edge should be obvious (figure 6).
Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6
Easy, huh? Also boring after you’ve done your 50th foot of knotwork. Happily, there is an almost equally simple method for varying the pattern.
Building Walls
Pick any two adjacent dots and draw a solid line; this is a “wall” that your knotwork may not cross. This means you’ll have to go around it in some fashion that will distinguish this section from every other section. Your method is the same; begin with a central block (figure 7), work outwards at right angles on both sides of the wall, but not across it (figure 8). Fill all complete diamonds that aren’t broken by the line (figure 9) and then loop the corners and edges that touch the wall (figure 10).
Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10
You can put in as many or as few walls as you like. I’ve actually put words and names into knotwork via walls, which since it’s going to end up as negative space (when blacked in) comes out as almost subliminal, bwa-ha-ha…
Once you cover up the dots, you’ll have dizzying knotwork without a clue left as to how you managed it. Here are some dots to start on. Happy plaiting!
Adelaide de Beaumont (Lisa Theriot)