An old sash is a letter written in thread. The women who wove them did not sign their names, but they left a pattern that anybody in the village could read.
The diamond
The diamond is the oldest sign on our sashes. Weavers called it the eye, or the field, and wove it for a good harvest. A diamond with a point in its middle is a sown field.
The cross
A small cross between the diamonds is the sun, or a star. On a wedding sash it was woven in pairs, so that the couple walked under two suns.
A grandmother once told us that a sash with no crosses was woven by somebody in a hurry.
The zigzag
The zigzag along the edge is the grass snake, the friend of the house. It keeps the sash, and whoever wears it, safe from harm.
Reading your own
Bring an old sash or towel to the weaving house and we will read it with you, and add its pattern to our book if it is not there yet.
