cord · three strands · 1·15
not a single knot — a thousand small ones. three strands taken in turn, left over middle, right over middle, again, again. the cord is stronger than any one strand. it does not fray at the place you would expect it to.
we braided this cord one winter from three colours of wool the sheep had given us in three different years. it is what the ribbon was attached to. it has been the drawstring on a bag, the pull-cord on a small bell, a bracelet on a child for one season, and then for the next child. everything a piece of rope can do, this cord has done, somewhere.
a braid keeps remembering the order of its making. take the end apart, and the three strands fall out true.
— a cord is a knot stretched out long.
keepsake · true-lover's · ribbon · a piece of lace · thimble