Woven, knitted or "crochet-ed"?

New Home · 03-03-2026 11:59PM #1

There's an old shawl with fringes along 4 of its four lower sides. It's shaped roughly like two lozenges attached on one side, but it's a single piece. This sort of thing.

The front of the pattern looks like this:

This is the reverse side:

Can someone tell me if it's woven, knitted or crocheted, and what's the pattern called or how it's obtained?

Thanks.

wildwillow · 04-03-2026 04:08AM

I don’t think it’s knitting or crochet, some type of weaving maybe. You might be able to see the construction method from how the edges are started and finished.

CelticRambler · 04-03-2026 08:12AM

Based on those two pictures, it looks like some kind of smocking technique applied to bundles of yarn rather than a flat fabric. I would think the raw material is first laid out on an embroidery frame, then knotted together progressively in one direction, then another to give that final look.

New Home · 04-03-2026 12:19PM

Thanks folks - I did think it was some kind of weaving, but the more I look at it the more confused I get regarding how it's put together, how it's first laid out and then tied together. Even the shape of the loom (if that's what was used) has me flummoxed. I thought at first it might have been made with a triangular loom, but the shape doesn't add up.

These are the edges.

Could it be a form of macramé?

CelticRambler · 04-03-2026 12:41PM

Possibly (am not familiar with macramé technique, only the end result!)

Here's a forensic dissection of an old runway presentation, where they suggest both smocking and macramé are being used in the one garment, and some of the motifs look similar to what you have there:

https://www.thecuttingclass.com/smocking-macrame-and-modular-patterns-at-noir-kei/

wildwillow · 04-03-2026 02:31PM

Agree with CelticRambler. The white seems to be overlaid on the red on both sides. Very tedious if hand knotted but I doubt it. I'm basing that on the white strands that seem to be links on the underside. You have certainly posed an intriguing problem!

As for the shape, it was probably cut from a larger piece and finished with the edging and tassels. Do you want to recreate it?

New Home · 04-03-2026 02:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124284236#Comment_124284236

Not exactly, it's more that I'd like to know how it's done… it's like when you're watching eleventy-seven tutorials with the best of intentions of attempting at least some of them, but in the end you're only watching them in a "How it's made" way. 😅 Or like when you see a magic trick and you try to figure out how it was carried out.

CelticRambler · 04-03-2026 05:49PM

I'd say it was a created as a single piece like that, not cut from a larger one. The tassles are quite typical of something woven/knotted on a frame. The tedium of knotting endless motifs like this is what attracts some people to the artform, and someone experienced could probably rattle through yards of it in no time at all.

To fully understand what's going on, you'd need to look really closely at the knots. Are they all individual knots, or does the yarn run from one to another. I suspect that's the case (certainly seems so for at least the thin strand of white on the back), which nudges it into the macramé style. The chunkier white may be swapping places with the red as it runs from top to bottom too.

I couldn't tell you how, but I do know that it's relatively easy for someon who knows what they're doing to create diagonal- or horizontal-looking lines with vertical knot/weave patterns, and I think that's what's happening with the petals of the flowers. That thin, three-strand line of white looks like it's pulling the red into the flower shape on the reverse face.

Woven, knitted or "crochet-ed"?

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