Strange cousins

  If we were to include surgery in the textile arts they would be considered very strange. Not because they are surgeons but because they, on the whole, don't practise other textile skills or use them in surgery. Generally people that can sew also embroider a bit or knit or quilt or make curtains or some of these or all. Most textile artists will combine techniques as standard. In short, when did we lose touch with our strange cousins?
  I find that when I explain techniques to a surgeon they understand them and can even see a parallel with their own sewing. Alternate names are offered for stitches and thread dilemmas  with some considerable understanding and empathy which they initially find surprising.
   It becomes harder when you offer up a different textile skill, knitting for example. Knitters use intuitive maths to build 3d sculptures from a single yarn. They are human 3d printers with infinitely more flexibility of thought than a machine.
  Then look at tailors, the use of geometry must be acknowledged and again this is often used intuitively. Someone who moulds cloth around the human body has a grasp of 4d maths, of the Mobius band and of the effect of time on their work.
  These are just two areas of understanding which can involve great material skill and which I feel the world of surgery either generally or in specialist fields could benefit from.
 Come back! we need a family reunion!

(image of a crocheted glove cuff repaired and augmented with needlelace.)