Handspinnners and Fiber Artists of Tumblr:
Hi. We need to talk about the Ply Spinners Guild and why you should check it out. If you have begun spinning your own yarn, you may have heard about Ply Magazine. It was created by Jacey Faulker and it's an awesome magazine that I totally recommend but am not here to push at you. I'm here to push their new Spinners Guild.
In 2023 Ply had a Kickstarter to raise funds to start an online guild featuring video lessons and classes from as many teachers as they can get to visit Jacey and teach. If you live in the US, you are probably aware of the difficulties you can run into if you want to take classes about handspinning, from cost to availability to accessibility and everything in between. If you're outside the US, a lot of teachers may not be able to travel to you, and you can't travel to them. The Ply Spinners Guild is not the perfect answer to all these issues but they are making a start and trying to build something that can help.
The Spinners Guild went live in late 2023 and they are releasing videos every six weeks. The videos are organized into seasons and season one is Foundations which is valuable to spinners at any and all levels of experience. You are baby and only have a spindle, or you have been spinning fifteen years and have multiple wheels? You'll both learn stuff, I promise. As of May 20, 2023, when I'm writing this, video lessons are available featuring Stephenie Gaustad, Maggie Casey, Deb Robson, Heavenly Bresser, Jill Duarte, and Jillian Moreno. There are more videos coming, and stuff has already been recorded for upcoming lessons on worsted spinning, woolen spinning, drumcarding and a lot more. Each video has a transcript and has CC/subtitles in English, French, Spanish, and Japanese, and I think they may add more languages as needed and/or requested. I believe everyone who wants to spin yarn or who uses yarn should watch Deb Robson's lessons on fiber, and I think you should watch her spinning yarn and talking about it. Deb has arthritis and has to modify how she works with fiber and spins, and talks about finding ways to do that.
Okay so let's talk about the cost. Video hosting is not cheap. Membership in the guild costs $85 for a one year membership. The videos do not expire and will remain available as long as your membership is active. There is also a forum where you can post questions and talk to other spinners. And there is an app, one on Android and one for iOS so you can have access to the videos whenever you want to watch one. They have a free three day trial, you do need a credit card to sign up for it. If you can, give it a look.
I know the cost is a barrier. And more importantly so does the guild. Here's why I'm asking everyone to boost this to as many people in the fiber arts community as you can. The Ply Spinners Guild has a scholarship program. Every three months they have 100 spots for people in underserved communities, who are on fixed incomes, who just plain can't afford it. You don't have to jump through hoops to prove things, just fill out the form. I'm not sure when the current scholarship period began or ends but their contact info is available and you can email and find out. If you have ever thought 'I want to learn about that but I can't afford it' then please, check out the scholarship program and apply.
So to wrap up this long post, here's a recent Ply spin in that they posted to Youtube. Some technical issues locked the number of attendees when Maggie Casey was there and so they posted the video to let everyone see and learn.
Link round up:
Ply Spinners Guild
Ply Scholarship Info, scroll down
