As you may know, I am the IOLI facebook editor. I have received a question to the page from a woman who has two young sons, 2 and 4. She asks "What is the best way to start this hobby?" Ordinarily I would say that she should get in touch with a local lace group that would tell her where lessons are available. My experience, learning in the 1970s was that I could never have learned from the books available then. Also, sourcing the materials was very challenging in pre-internet days. I have not had the experience of trying to learn bobbin lace recently. I was quite struck when I put together Lace, not Lace, to see that many of the younger contributors had taught themselves. One had been a student at the Maryland Art Institute and taught herself from a library book. Another, Brooklyn based, had taught herself from youtubes and books. Penny Nickels, the needle lacer who made the Jersey Devil had taught herself from books on the University of Arizona site. It was actually overwhelming to realize that all the efforts of local groups to give books to libraries, and of Tess and the Professor to post them on the site had actually borne fruit in the form of artists learning from these resources. I am now contemplating whether it might be easier in this day and age for someone to teach themselves lacemaking than to locate and attend a class. As we know, classes are few, meet rarely, and tend to be so spread out that distance becomes a problem. I think this might be especially the case for a young mother. What answer should I give this questioner about the best way to start the hobby? Devon
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