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Bilro Lace, is based around Brazilian Folklore kindly offered by my designer friend Karoline Vitto.

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Brazilian Laces

Lacework arrived in Brazil with the first Portuguese women who came from Portugal and the islands of Madeira and Azores. Their husbands or fathers were fishermen and they settled on the coast in northeastern Brazil and on the island of Santa Catarina in the South. Most lace makers (rendeiras in Portuguese) are still the wives of fishermen, justifying the popular saying that "where there is a fishing net there is lace." In fact, in the filé laces characteristic of Alagoas in northeastern Brazil, it is usually the fishermen who make the nets that the women will fill with geometrical or floral designs; as far as I know, there's only one guy, a "rendeiro," in Maceió.

The most famous of all Brazilian laces is the "renaissance" or "Irish" lace made in Pernambuco. For information on shopping for dresses, skirts, blouses, and home accessories (tablecloths will cost around two thousand dollars), please see our Recife and João Pessoa pages. Among our favorites are also the "bilro" and "tramóia" laces on the island of Santa Catarina.

Renaissance lace

Bilro lace

Lacemaker's pillow.

Music & Folklore

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Lacework arrived in Brazil with the first Portuguese women who came from Portugal and the islands of Madeira and Azores. Their husbands or fathers were fishermen and they settled on the coast in northeastern Brazil and on the island of Santa Catarina in the South.

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Donegal Yarns, Main Street, New Church Glebe, Kilcar, County Donegal, Ireland

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Donegal Yarns, Main Street, New Church Glebe, Kilcar, County Donegal, Ireland

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Donegal Yarns, Main Street, New Church Glebe, Kilcar, County Donegal, Ireland

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Donegal Tweed Yarn, is a world-famous yarn-producing company, still family-run, based in Ireland. As an Irish designer, it is custom to use this or see it within Irish designer collections, for a lot of my youth, I didn't appreciate the yarn until I found who I was as a designer during my studies. Donegal tweed has become a statement in both my machine knitting and hand knitting. It is a wonderful yarn, that is still a global player in the yarn industry.

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Traditional Irish Wool Production

As early as the 1800's, the tradition of spinning, weaving and knitting, was well documented, in the cottages of South West Donegal. Using a combination of native and imported wools, most homes would process the wool, dye and spin the fibre into thread, before either knitting it into woollen garments or selling it to a local home weaver for the making of tweed cloth. These garments, although mainly for personal use, were also sold to other localities and in some cases exported further afield.

Rich in Heritage

In the early 1900's the setting-up of a carpet factory in Kilcar, increased the demand for woollen yarn and a commercial spinning facility was established. This facility brought the skills required to produce a 'Donegal' yarn to an industrial scale. The initial development was spearheaded by the state-sponsored Congested Districts Board, which was tasked with providing employment in areas that had historically been dependent on agriculture and home-based crafts. During the 1920's the creation of the Free-State Government saw the handing over of responsibility from the Congested Districts Board to Gaeltarra Eireann.

Integrity & Quality of Donegal Yarns

In the mid 1970's 'Gaeltarra' built a new spinning mill in Kilcar to supplying the local knitwear industry and targeted national and international markets with their tweed effect yarns. To reflect the concentration on flecked/nepp effect yarns and the increased internationalization of the customer base the business was renamed Donegal Yarns in 2008. The business has seen many changes and continues to develop its products and facilities to ensure continued growth and prosperity, while maintaining the integrity and quality of the unique Donegal yarns.

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Our History - Traditional Irish Wool Production - Donegal Yarns

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As early as the 1800's, the tradition of spinning, weaving and knitting, was well documented, in the cottages of South West Donegal. Using a combination of native and imported wools, most homes would process the wool, dye and spin the fibre into thread, before either knitting it into woollen garments or selling it to a local home weaver for the making of tweed cloth.

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Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum, Market Square, Lisburn

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Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum, Market Square, Lisburn

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Irish Linen Centre & Lisburn Museum, Market Square, Lisburn

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Linen and flax was a huge industry in ireland especially the north of Ireland. It was a huge export and expressed my families identities around craft, and heritage jobs being passed down or child being trained in the trade

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Trace the history of Irish Linen in our award-winning 'Flax to Fabric' exhibition.

See finely-woven Egyptian linen, explore the history of flax production in Europe, or admire the long saffron-dyed tunics of the Irish nobleman. Visitors can also travel back in time and walk under the arches of Lisburn's historic 17 th-century Market House, where local cottage weavers brought their cloth to sell.

Learn how flax was grown and prepared, and watch expert spinners turn coarse flax into fine yarn. Visitors can try the spinning wheel for themselves!

Travel through the spinner's cottage, and see how the whole family was involved in producing linen.

Irish linen was famous worldwide, and visitors can admire fine samples of Coulson's damask, or dresses by Sybil Connolly, one of Ireland's leading clothes designer. Her work was worn by Jackie Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II.

In the 'Weaving Workshop' see live demonstrations of the hand loom, chat to our expert weavers, or witness the innovate Jacquard loom weave intricate damask.

Finally, get a taste of the highs and lows of industrial life on the 'Factory Floor'.

Complete your visit by browsing our Museum Shop, which sells a wide range of linen and craft goods, as well as books on the history of the linen industry and the Lisburn area.

Tours of 'Flax to Fabric' can be booked through Reception.

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Flax to Fabric: the Story of Irish Linen - Irish Linen Centre

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Trace the history of Irish Linen in our award-winning 'Flax to Fabric' exhibition. See finely-woven Egyptian linen, explore the history of flax production in Europe, or admire the long saffron-dyed tunics of the Irish nobleman. Visitors can also travel back in time and walk under the arches of Lisburn's historic 17 th-century Market House, where local cottage weavers brought their cloth to sell.

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Aran Jumper/sweater was an old identity format for clan/family members that associated an arrangement of stitches and cable designs to ones family or heritage identity. Now a world wide fabrication, but lost in the sense of its pagan routes and symbolism behind each stitch design.

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Irish Sweaters & Aran Sweaters, Irish Wool Knits | ClanArans

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ClanArans.com has Ireland's largest collection of authentic hand knit Irish Sweaters. The most famous of Irish sweaters is the Aran Sweater. All our Aran Sweaters are made in Ireland by skilled craftspeople.