I quit subscribing to Handwoven a couple years ago. Most of the time
the techniques seemed to involve already-woven cloth, not cloth I would
weave. Then the tendency toward Fiber Art is not pleasing to me.
Basically, didn't get anything out of the magazines I used to drop
everything to devour, so I quit throwing away my money. I always
wondered why they selected the editor of a failed competitor to run
Handwoven. I didn't like Weavers--even less when they didn't refund the
part of my subscription I hadn't received when they folded.
I still get Spin-Off because I was offered and paid $250 for a life-time
subscription (have no idea why it was offered--my friends didn't get the
chance) about a year before the last editor change there. In my view,
the quality immediately dropped. The projects are dumbed down
tremendously, there's no more technical articles, the things illustrated
are not, for the most part, well designed or executed, and like with
Handwoven there's a definite move toward more embellishment than
spinning, and the few attempts at scholarly articles are not well
researched. I've scrutinized the project articles in quite a few
copies, to find that there's routinely 20-30 times more knitting
information than spinning, even when the project is supposedly to
illustrate an unusual or new spinning technique.
But with both Handwoven and Spin-Off, I can go to back issues and be
inspired. Color, craftsmanship, design are all usually of high quality,
and the few exceptions have things to learn from as well. Each of Rita
Buchanan's articles is a gem--they should be collected and put together
into a book, I think. I'm glad I have my stash of back issues, and
won't part with them for anything! But it's frustrating to not have
<hint, hint, nudge, nudge> an active Fibernet to turn to for learning
and project descriptions for inspiration, since Spin-Off no longer fills
that role :)
Holly
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