Most of the English speaking world associates the word Paisley with the tear drop shape and its turned over end found in so many fabric and tapestry designs. The town of Paisley (it cannot be referred to as a city because a city in the UK by definition must have a cathedral and Paisley only has a gigantic abbey) no longer produces the shawls that made it famous but we did spend a delightful time learning about the weaving at their museum (which also houses among other things, displays of stuffed wild animals and ancient Egyptian treasures-they appear to be very big on animals and Egyptians in this part of the world).
Above is a small sample of the weaving sitting on the square by square drawing of the pattern. The piece of weaving is also folded over on itself to show the multitude of thread strands at the back, which must be trimmed and removed when the piece is complete. From the grid pattern above, cards are punched to correspond to the placement of colours. These thousands of cards are assembled and fed into the jacquard loom shown below to create the designs. According to our guide, most histories of the computer mention the jacquard looms and their binary system as part of the computer's origins.
Other interesting aspects of Paisley:
-The J.P. Coats family and the Clark family had both very large and prosperous thread producing companies. Both of these names are certainly part of my own yarn knowledge, and KnitTraders still orders Anchor Tapestry Yarn from Coats & Clark.
-The Clark company were the first to sell thread on a spool. Before that you had to bring your own spool on which they would wind the thread that was required.
-Streets in Paisley are all named for the textile trade: Cotton St. Gauze St. etc.
-It is believed that the very first game of curling was played here. You can certainly tell why they are called "rocks".
-People who are from Paisley are known at "Paisley Buddies".
Famous Paisley Buddies include actors David Tennant for all you Dr Who fans, and Tom Conti.
