The Great Thick & Thin Debate!

Arlene:  I thought I knew Wool Wench pretty well.  Afterall, week in and week out, hours of Skype sessions, uncountable emails…and then, accidently, I found out that while I love Thick &  Thin yarns, Wool Wench isn’t a fan.  What?!?!?  I have to say, it shook me to the core.  We debated the merits of this classic technique and decided to bring our debate to the world at large.  So, in this post, we bring you “The Great Thick &

Big Batch of Site Updates!

It sure has been exciting here this week!  Since we all have so much going on in our lives, we thought we’d do a little recap on the blog in case you missed any of the happenings. The biggest news was the live broadcast last night.  It was a lot of fun to put together and do.  It was wonderful having Andrew Poad from Majacraft with us, too!  We have a new page here on the website that will keep

On Making Things for Others

Suzy warned me about writing this post.  She tells me it is going to stir up controversy!  But, this is what has been on my mind lately…if you read all the way to the end, I will tell you why…hehehe… Yard sales, thrift shops, rummages sales…I love to go to them, but I hate to see anything hand knitted, crocheted or woven there, abandoned and unloved.  I know how much went into making those things even when we’re talking about

Featured Color: Brown

If I am asked what my favorite color is, I used to answer “green”…now I would probably answer “pink”.  But, never has it occurred to me to answer “brown” nor has brown even come in as second, third or fourth place.  In fact, I have never known anyone to say their favorite color is brown.  Surely those folks exist, but I am not aware of them — although certainly someone reading this will claim brown as theirs. While brown has

Featured Color: White

Welcome to our new semi-regular series of posts on Color! Because color is so fundamental to what we do as fiber artists, Suzy and I will be tackling color one color at a time. Living in a part of the world that is experiencing winter right now, complete with more snow that usual, I’m very inspired to start this series with white. I drive through the countryside to go to work five days a week.  Often, the ride is very

Mrs. Mills Be Gone!

When I was in third grade, we were to learn how to write using cursive handwriting.  At the beginning of the year, my teacher, Mrs. Mills, put up a board with many ink pens on it in all different colors.  When our cursive handwriting was deemed “good enough”, we earned the pen of our choice.  So, the faster you were “good enough”, the more likely you were to get your choice of pens. And, you could graduate from writing with

Fiber Preparation is EVERYTHING

As a beginner spinner, I remember fiber being, well, just fiber.  And, there were all of these strange terms such as “batt”, “rolag”, and “combed top”.  It was confusing…remember, I wasn’t a natural with my wheel and to make matters worse, I wanted to cling to the idea that any fiber would do! But,  slowly my understanding regarding fibery-related matters started to become clearer.  I learned about staple length.  I watched old dvd’s from master spinners like Rita Buchanan.  The

Into the Fire…

Arlene, here. Suzy and I take turns writing these posts and this week it was my turn…and this week, we decided we would focus on keeping a journal.  This is rather ironic to me because my relationship to keeping a journal has a checkered past.   I started keeping journals a long time ago — at least thirty years ago when I was in my teens and then twenties.  I love paper, tablets, and pens like most of us so

Gathering Things

In just a few short days, we embark! In last week’s newsletter, we talked about some pre-course homework to help you get warmed up for what is to come.  That assignment was to collect five images each of  that make you happy, sad, thoughtful and creative.  I know a number of you have created Pinterest boards and shared the link on the Members Only Forum Thread and the  Group’s Facebook page. I have created a board on Pinterest also and