It is time of lace meetings

Lace meetings in Spain start in spring. Because of the nice weather, lace associations take their laces out of the rooms to show them to all people interested in seeing how bobbin lace is made.

First of all, for those who don't know what a lace meeting is,  I am going to explain it briefly.  A lace meeting is a day of gathering of many lacers,  who go out to the street with their  bobbins and their pillows to show that this craft is  not lost,  that it is even more in fashion than ever  and that it is not as complicated as it may look like at first sight.  Everybody can participate in a lace meeting, no matter if she/he belongs to a lace association or not. But a previous inscription is necessary, to book a place at a table. So, what we usually see when attending a lace meeting is lots of large tables where many lacers from all over the country place their pillows and demonstrate for the public.

Table of the lacers of Gijón (at Seville 2011)

Lace meetings are interesting for many reasons. First of all, because we can see hundreds of lacers practicing their hobby. We can ask them questions about a particular stitch, where to attend lace lessons here or there, where to buy books and patterns.

Apart from this, at a meeting we will find many shops, which attract the attention of most lace lovers. Here we can buy almost everything related to lace: from the most varied types of bobbins and threads, to pillows, pillow stands, magazines with beautiful designs and even material to sew our edgings, and many more accessories which we don't find in the shops of our towns or villages.

Trabajos escuela Mi Pequeño Taller (Guadalajara 2010)

As in spring there are so many lace meetings which we can attend, we have to choose which ones we cannot miss. I usually choose two meetings a year. One beeing always the one in my own town: Guadalajara. I attend the meeting with some of my students, and beeing very interested in teaching, in class and outside the class, we place a selection of the work done along the year on our table. And each piece is accompanied by an indication of the type of lace shown. I think it is important to use these meetings to to teach our lacer makers as well as the visitors. It is nice to know how to make lace, but if we also know where the laces we make come from and learn to identify styles and techniques , we add much more interest to our hobby. Apart from this, most lacers don't work patterns designed by themselves. They are using patterns designed by someone else. It is essential to make this name known. It is something we owe the author.

So, be alert and take advantage of the most expected season for lacers.