I've always been interested in codes and ciphers. The idea that a message could be encrypted so that only the intended recipient could read it was fascinating to my younger self and well, I still find them fascinating.
A cipher is a series of steps used to encrypt data. Ciphers work at the level of individual letters or numbers, or in electronic terms at the level of a bit, or byte. In general for each one character in the original text there will be one character in the encryption. A key is required as part of the cipher
Codes, on the other hand, may use more or less characters and work at the level of meaning. Whole words or phrases are converted. A codebook might link a random set of letters and or numbers to particular messages. For example HTSU89 might represent "I'm thirsty, bring tea please." OK, not a very likely code, but who wants to get picked up on GCHQ's radar.
Morse Code
In 1836 Samuel Morse, Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail developed a system to send electric pulses along a wire. By 1844 this had developed into a system of dots and dashes (short and long pulses) which were grouped together to represent the English alphabet and the numbers 0 to 9. The dot duration is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code transmission. The duration of a dash is three times the duration of a dot. Each dot or dash within a character is followed by period of signal absence, called a space, equal to the dot duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dots, and the words are separated by a space equal to seven dots.
From telegraph to radio communications, morse code was invaluable during the world wars and was used as an international maritime standard up until 1999. Today it is mostly used by hobbyists.
And crafters.
The Morse Scarf
Using the many online Morse translators it was easy to translate a word into a series of dots and dashes. I chose the word "love." I really liked the idea of making a scarf that would wrap the owner in a warm swirl of love.
Love in Morse is represented by .-.. --- ...- . and using standard Morse spacings would not fit easily on the heddle needed for the chosen yarn. So the code was represented in units of two warp spaces. That gave just the right number of code warps plus a small border at each side of the scarf.
The scarf itself was woven on a rigid heddle loom with a 15 dent heddle. The yarn is the gorgeous laceweight silk and alpaca from "Drops." Each warp is made up of two strands of the yarn to make the letters really stand out.
The resulting scarf is soft, warm and drapes beautifully. It has been one of my most popular makes and on Christmas Day there will be a number of lucky ladies (why no men?) who will be unwrapping a little bit of communications history in textile form.
What word would you choose for a Morse scarf?
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