This subject comes around every so often. Look how it's gotten the silent Fibernetters to post! (Even if much of it is just kvetching with no real solutions offered.) I have some personal thoughts on the magazines. In the past I have written for various of them (not all of them Interweave) and have not continued to do so because either there was no recompense for my hard work beyond a free copy or two of the magazine or because my "voice" got completely edited out of the article. I even once had a letter to the editor get edited into a more positive slant! Grrr...
Meanwhile, I do think there is a place for beginner level articles, even though I'm most definitely not a beginner. My spinning students are however and most of them are already knitters. They are very happy to see articles which feature handspinning and how it can be used in their knitting or crochet or other crafts, some of which are new to them. They find highly technical articles completely over their heads. I've been spinning for 30 years and frankly I don't enjoy too much heavy duty tech-talk either! Measuring twist angles and counting treadles may be fascinating to some but that's not the way I work. So does that mean I don't want to see more technical stuff in the magazines? Of course not! It's all important to someone and you never know when you'll need the information. But there's only so much space in a magazine and as one of us has mentioned, the trend is toward short and sweet over long and detailed these days. The excuse is that people are busy and their attention is split in too many directions to read something long and involved and that takes brain power to decipher. The truth is spinning is one subject that is actually not at all easy to write about. It's very physical, visual and tactile. and not easily described in a way that makes sense to those who don't already know what you're talking about. All that said, I wonder if the editors are getting the caliber of articles submitted that you say you all would like to see. If not, why not? (For the same reasons as I stated at the beginning?) Or if they are, are they "dumbing" them down or just not publishing them? If so, why do they feel they need to do that? What are their readers telling them? Another thought is that a lot of the good stuff is on the Internet now, where the authors don't have to be concerned about space, printing, distribution or a number of other factors. You can submit to an online magazine or just post to your own blog. Then let us all know about it! Hope everyone has/had a Happy New Year! I've already had the best holiday present when my handsome new grandson was born late Friday night! Hugs, Louisa http://damselflys.blogspot.com/ To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
