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Medieval society; sword-and-sorcery. The woman in question is one of the primary adventurers, but not one of the most important. She could tie ropes in patterns or even hold knotted string stretched between her fingers, which would cause discomfort or insanity to those who saw them.

There were at least four books in the series. In one of the later books she found herself worshiped (or at least respected) by giant spiders.

I read them in the early 2000's, about the time I read Runelords by Farland. I'm not sure if the two series were contemporary.

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  • The Wheel of Time?
    – J Doe
    Commented Jul 23 at 15:41
  • @JDoe Was it? If so, I'm concerned about my memory, lol :)
    – bitsmack
    Commented Jul 23 at 18:47
  • Was this character in The Wheel of Time?
    – bitsmack
    Commented Jul 24 at 4:14
  • The magic system in The Wheel of Time uses weaving (and other manipulations with physical analogies), but of strands of energy, not physical rope. Giant spiders, to the best of my recollection, never appeared in the series.
    – chepner
    Commented Jul 24 at 13:19
  • It sounds like Moiraine from Wheel of Time. She is an important character but not one of the most important. Magic is done by a metaphysical kind of "weaving," but not using actual string, and male magic users go insane.
    – J Doe
    Commented Jul 24 at 17:10

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I think this is David Drake's Lord of the Isles series. The first book was published in 1997 so it fits the time you remember reading it.

The female character you remember is Ilna, and the scene with the spiders is in the fourth book Mistress of the Catacombs. This also mentions the cords that Ilna manipulates to do magic:

Ilna stood because it seemed undignified to die lying down. A silver-and-black spider the size of a bull had left its web and was walking toward her on legs as thick as Ilna's own. The tree which anchored one side of the structure of wrist-thick silk was a hundred and fifty feet high, but it swayed to be free of the spider's weight. Her steps had a mincing precision like those of a crab underwater.

Ilna took out her hank of cords. It was her pride that she could control any living creature which had eyes to read her patterns; were this spider alone, she could hold it till sundown. It wasn't alone. The valley held more of the creatures than there were people in a Valles tenement. The smallest of them was as big as a dog, and even without poison their fangs could tear her apart. This wasn't the way Ilna would have chosen to die. She smiled coldly. Well, that was all right; she hadn't chosen it.

Greetings and honour, Ilna Os-Kenset, said a voice in her mind. We to whom weaving is life bow to you, who are a greater weaver yet.

She fears us, said another mental voice. She has no reason to fear. We are her friends and her disciples.

We are your friends and disciples, Ilna, agreed a chorus, each tone different but the thoughts all the same.

"You're the spiders," Ilna said. Her gut didn't believe it, but she kept her voice flat because her intellect knew beyond a doubt that she was right.

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  • This is definitely it! Thank you! I've spent so much unsuccessful time on Google that I was starting to despair :) Also, nice to see you over here. You are an unstoppable force over at Physics.SE :)
    – bitsmack
    Commented Jul 24 at 17:32

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